[ This is an archive of the discussion I started in Reddit. You can find the original thread here... ]
I watched this talk on TED from Sunitha Krishnan on her fight against sex slavery (youtube link). I was emotionally totally disturbed after watching this talk and I couldn’t get my head out of it.
I have read about rape and other forms of sexual abuse before and a severe pain/anger remained in my mind at the fact that in case where women and children are the victims, they don’t have much to do in diffense as they are physically weaker. I couldn’t agree with this way of nature. I always believed that nature keep the balance of things but not in this.
I am an engineer by profession and I believe that an engineer’s job is to find soultion to complex problems in systamatic way and implement it. Though I couldn’t think of it from the shoes of an engineer because of the emotion involved in, an idea struck my mind after sometime. I feel that the only possibility for a victim to diffend the crime is through getting help from someone else. I have read about equipments which can be used to prevent rape but they are rarely effective and practical. The victim her/him-self cannot do much even with some weapon to protect. The best possibility is to get help from others. Like what are the possibilities that, a woman get no help even after she manages to alarm people nearby and they rush to the place. Clealy if someone can reach the place, the possibilities for the attacker to continue is very low.
So the question is how can she let others know that she needs help. She can cry for help, make use of her phone, etc.. But these are not that effective and in most cases may cause more threat from the attacker in an attempt to silence her, may even result in death. I was thinking about the most practical way to inform all who can help especially people nearby and police. Something like a “Panic button” which if pressed can alarm neighbours and police.
Now the questions are,
- Can we make such a panic button?
- Can she really press it?
- Does this mean she will have to carry it all time?
- What happens after she press it?
I do not have definite answers for any of these questions but a lot of possibilties which are by the way quite appealing to me.
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Can we make a panic button?
- Yes. It should be someting lite, small, easy to carry, wearable electronic gadget that can inform police and all nearby people who are wearing the gadget.
- To inform the neigbours and polic, it needs some wireless, radio based communication that can operate on low power and long distance: possible. We may use existing cellular networks or even long wave radio as we don’t need to pass lot of information but just a signal to send something like an SOS
- To inform where to rush to, it needs GPS to give exact coordinates of the victim: possible. GPS chips operating at low power are already easily available in the maket.
- To start the alarm, it needs a button or may be combination of buttons (like a yellow and red swith to show level of threat). All she needs is to press the button and the device do the rest of the job.
- To tell neighbours about victim’s location, may be a small display on it show directions to the victim: possible with a elcetronic compass and a small LCD showing an arrow mark to the location.
- To power the device, may be solar straps (I am thinking about a wrist watch) and kinetics (as in eco drive wrist watche).
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How does it work?
- In case of a threat from another human or a mishap a victim press the button. The device broad casts an SOS message with its current location and Serial number of device. Nearby devices can decipher thisi location information and use the display and compass to direct people to location of victim. Recievers at police aid post can pick up the location and serial number from SOS and find out where is help needed and who needs help (by comparing serial number with a database). Police can also get info about the people near by as they automatically broadcast a SOS acknowledment. Police can give directions to neighbours to help the victim till the time police reaches the location. People/police reaches the location and help prevent the attack and secure the victim. It can be made compulsary to wear the device in public, by law, to improve the effectiveness of the system.
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Can she really press it?
- I think it will be easier than even making a loud noise or ofcourse using a phone. But the victim should stay consious to do this. If it is in the form of a wrist watch, possibilities of managing a click on the watch is good enough.
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Does this mean people will have to carry it all time?
- Yes, there is no other way. But on the other hand we carry a lot of stuffs with us where ever we go, like cell phones, watch etc. So if we can turn a wrist watch to this device it will not be so much a burden to carry it. Surely considering the security it can offer. And if you want to remove it, say when you are home, you can do it using some safe word or someting. For example one can mark the coordinates of one’s home as a safe place where one will not be wearing it (disconnected mode). If the device is removed out side the safe zone say by force, it will send the SOS.
- People will also need to carry this if they are willing to help one in need or at least their dear ones. The device can alarm not only neighbours and force but a preset list of relatives or friends, may be.
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What happens after victim press the button?
- Ones who get the SOS can rush to the scene and help. Police will be informed and they can take necessary action to help the victim as well as prevent the attcker from escaping.
- Once everyone is aware of this device and if one is wearing one, chances of being attacked will be less.
Apart from preventing rape, this device can prevent any other violent crimes of this sort and it can act as a life saver. For example people can immediately inform the emergency services in case of a mishap, for example a road accident. Chances of pressing a button to making a call to 911 is quite higher. Maybe the device can be used in other forms as well for example to know where your friend are now (like in Google latitude), a social security number, etc Now here is the part where I need help from you.
Below are some notable comments I received.
I don’t like the idea of one more thing to carry around. I have a hard enough time remembering to bring my keys, ID and money with me when I go somewhere. I don’t want one more thing to keep track of. I also don’t like the inherently paranoid attitude I’d have to adopt in order to remember to grab my “rape alarm” and keep it with me at all times. Dragging a device around with me every where I go on the off chance that someone tries to rape or assault me seems kind of crazy.
I think something similar to this actually exists for senior citizens who live alone, to call for help in case they fall or have a dramatic health problem. Also, there are panic buttons on most college campuses at frequent intervals already, though I don’t think it is as common outside of campuses. I don’t really see how having more of these will benefit women, except if maybe the idea of a girl having the button would discourage men from trying to rape them in the first place.
And privacy concerns? Can you imagine the privacy advocates outrage at what would basically be a government run tracking system? And you seriously misjudge the general public if you think that neighbors are going to rush to help. Maybe you feel that your neighbors might come help but in high risk neighborhoods the general attitude is to mind their own business.
For the issue of whether or not it will be activated, perhaps it could be a passive device worn as a belt that when removed by force or without the proper combination will result in activation. Or more complicated maybe it can monitor heart rate, adrenaline levels, etc to automatically activate if there’s some distress.
Great idea, but there needs to be a way to filter false alarms from serious threats. Perhaps a combination of pushing the panic button?
This idea is very good. We should be in a position to use technological advancements to counter the issue. But this is having a social aspect also… the society which we live is a complicated one. A system which tries to find out a commercial aspect on almost everything from salt to human being (modified ‘salt to camphor’) is also equally culprit here. It is very much required to think about making society better in terms of different higher humane concepts and standards. Civil society has to intervene for making the society better and ‘removing’ injustices. Sunita’s approach of fighting and educating the masses is very much required.
This problem is not caused by the lack of any technology and hence a technology solution cannot work in this case.
Only wide adoption of a technology like this will ever help in preventing crime (if at all it does help; I doubt it). A device like this is a very huge overhead for rare cases of incidents like this. As far I understand, getting hit by a car or having a heart attack is more possible than getting raped. Does this mean that we have to carry small devices to prevent all these accidents? What if a single device cannot cater to all these needs?
All in all what all this means is that even though technology is a great tool in helping us solve many social problems, using technology will not help us in every social cause. There are many problems that are way deeper and complicated than that.
As many redditors have pointed out, the problem of spam is a big issue too. Experience tells us that in situations like these, once the spam ratio stabilizes, the using or this device or not will make no difference in the possibility of a particular victim getting harmed.
The biggest contribution we can make is to make sure that unfortunate incidents like these do not happen in the small communities that we have an an influence on, and if they happen, help the victims to carry on and have a better life that does not bear the marks of the accident, and make sure that the culprits are handled correctly.
PS: Your blog design does not encourage reading the articles. I feel that the font size is too small. It is tempting to skip reading the articles because of this. I have to use http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/ to read this blog.
I will surely consider changing the font size. For the time being please make use of that bookmarklet…
And, technology cannot prevent the root cause of crimes but surely make it difficult, for those with a taste for it, to commit one. Not only in case of crimes but it can also help in cases of accidents, mishaps or any case where one needs help. The device I have discussed is not going to help change our attitude or morality but help those with good attitude and morale help others when they really need help.
..nice to see such discussions.
..Couldn’t understand how world degraded to such a level that it’s filled with such brutal pedophiles all around! How come a kid could know that she should make use of technology or this alarm when she is in danger when she herself is unaware that she is in danger?
Let me put it up like this. First and foremost, ‘why all these are happening? What is the psychology behind?’. From way old there exists a strong entity and a weak entity. And how come this ‘strong’ & ‘weak’? Is the average man superior to the average woman in terms of physical strength? Probably yes. But does that ever say an average man is superior to an average woman in a very general aspect? Probably not. Nor is the opposite true. In that sense is there truly a ‘strong’ & ‘weak’? I will say ‘NO’. But how is this psychology playing its role in these cases? Isn’t rape been used as a weapon to dominate over the ‘cold war’ that exists from time-to-time? Or thinking of it the other way round, is that an act to achieve sexual fulfillment? Absolutely not. It can be concluded as a ‘baseless point’ when we can see the attack against innocent children, the most cowardly way of establishing the so-called ‘power’! The most cowardly way intended to destroy a person’s inner strength, psyche, or sense of power over their life.
I think ‘World’ would have been a much much much better place to live in if I (or we) could reorganize it again!… not only to think but also to act!
Faiz,
You are missing the point.
“…those with good attitude and morale help others…”
It is not about having a good attitude or high regards for ethics. It is just that when your technology is not prevalent, it is of no use because preventing the one off rape cases will be impossible if the rape attempt is on a victim who does not belong to the small group who have this device. But even if your technology becomes widely used, the supposedly “highly ethical” people will not be able to weed out the spam calls from the genuine calls and hence it is not going to work.
Today’s world has advanced a million times is terms of technology, compared to the medieval ages or the dark dark ages. But still, the crime rate has not come down. It has only gone up!
Historically, the countries and societies who were successful in bringing down crime rates did not do it with some clever device. They did it by extremely delicate social engineering.
I rest my case.