Page 233 - Cultural Theory

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••• Maggie O’Neill •••

victimization; increase in criminal activities such as drug dealing, pimping, and
robbery; disregard for private or communal property; and male residents solicited by
sex workers. Webster provides a vivid account of the area where he lives:

At night the Green takes on an altogether different character. Fast food
eateries and Balti restaurants stretch up … Road. Groups of men hurry home
from the mosque. Women standing on corners peer questioningly into the
windows of cars cruising through or ask male pedestrians if they want
‘Business’. The speed bumps – Sleeping policemen – ensure that essentially all
drivers become kerb crawlers, and the humps raise the eye line of inadver-
tent drivers so that they have to meet the gaze of the women eye to eye.
(in O’Neill et al., 2003)
The big problem for our community is that soon after the dark our sister and
daughter wouldn’t go and walk on the road because the people passing are
shouting, Are you in business?’ I feel shame for us when this happens. I would-
n’t like my daughter or my sister or my wife to walk round this area after the
dark because, you know, you don’t know who’s approaching them.
(Resident at Focus Group 1)

The majority were also concerned about how the women and young women
involved are personally affected and this included routes in to prostitution and the
impact of pimping.

Figure 11.3 ‘Glad it’s not me’

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