Ask for “Angela”

In today’s world, we unfortunately hear about sexual assault and date-related violence occurring on a regular basis. Whether it’s in a small town bar or at a fraternity party on a large college campus, young women aged 18-24, as well as the LGBT community, have astronomically large odds of experiencing it at some point.

In order to combat the large threat to the community that date-related violence poses, cities are implementing a measure known as “Ask for Angela”. With the knowledge of the bystander effect in mind, city officials and law enforcement are aware of the difficulty that may arise should something occur in places heavily populated. Because of the bystander effect, the surrounding crowd may not feel inclined to respond should they hear or see something that may be concerning, due to the fact that others around them aren’t responding either. If the situation isn’t an obvious emergency, and there is some question to its severity, the chances of someone responding fall dramatically. This doesn’t leave much confidence in the minds of young adults, and people of all ages, who may fear being in such a situation.

“Ask for Angela” was developed in Arlington, VA based upon initiatives that started in cities across the United Kingdom (Norwood, 2019). The program is now live in approximately 22 bars and restaurants in the area and allows people who feel unsafe or threatened in their current situation to have an immediate resource of help on their side by simply “asking for Angela”. The program trains staff in these establishments to watch and listen for any woman or man who “asks for Angela”. Should someone ask for her, the staff members are trained to help this individual leave the establishment safely, and obtain a cab for them to get home (Norwood, 2019). This program is training staff throughout the city to respond efficiently instead of falling subject to the bystander effect.

Personally, I thought this was an incredibly effective method to combat the unfortunately common occurrence of situations like these. In wake of the #MeToo movement and the opening of conversations into this topic, I felt it was very relevant, needed, and most definitely instills confidence in the community. It’s almost a way to bring the community together, to target and fight these types of crimes together. It gives victims a sense of hope and a reason to feel less alone should they fall into a situation that would require assistance like this. It also allows people to subliminally ask for assistance without blatantly saying it. I thought this was important because there may be times in which a person doesn’t feel it is safe to bluntly ask for assistance. Ask for Angela is almost a disguised way to do so. This all said, I am hoping that initiatives such as this are put into play in cities across the country, because I truly believe it would make a huge difference.

References

Norwood, C. (2019). In #MeToo Era, Cities Train Bystanders to Intervene. Governing. Retrieved from https://www.governing.com/topics/public-justice-safety/gov-arlington-ask-for-angela-sexual-assault-prevention.html

2 comments

  1. The “Ask for Angela” intervention is unique in that it has devised a way to directly eliminate the diffusion of responsibility to boost helping behavior. In addition to ambiguity reducing the ability for victims to receive aid, it is also a social influence of observers that may cause inactivity, as, there is a false belief that “someone else will do it”. Especially in a crowded party or party, such as diffusion of responsibility could have severe repercussions. By “Asking for Angela” victims can take charge and call a bystander to act by directly assigning him/her personal responsibility. Great blog post!

  2. This is very interesting! I hadn’t heard of this. This is a great idea to keep us online daters safe. I had been in uncomfortable situations before and “asking for Angela” would have definitely helped. You would think that being in a crowded place would be safer, but based on my own experiences, it gets complicated. Most people in crowded areas tend to block too much sensory information, and it isn’t easy to get someone’s attention.

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