A Memphis Abduction and the Dilemma of Women Jogging Alone

At approximately 4:30 a.m. on September 2, 34-year-old teacher Eliza Fletcher was abducted on a Memphis street during her morning jog. A report shared that she was forced into an SUV and has not been heard from since.

Ethnicity and socioeconomic factors often determine media coverage.

Within 24 hours, this case attracted national news coverage, which is not surprising given that cases involving white women connected to wealthy families almost always receive more coverage than the scores of tragic cases involving poor, or even middle-class, women of color.

Each instance of such media exposure should include a reminder of female assault victims and the acceptance that all women, regardless of ethnicity or sociodemographic factors, have worth, and their life experiences should be valued.

In addition to the widely established inequities of media coverage dependent on ethnicity and financial factors, analysis of the recent abduction of Fletcher begs a crucial question: How safe is it for women to jog alone?

As a psychologist who has offered commentary on television panels of many tragic cases, I've reviewed case after case of women abducted or murdered while jogging alone. In some cases, the time of day was early morning or night; in others, the location of the crime was a sparsely populated meadow or a large city park with intricate, curving paths.

Yet it's important to note that many instances of women being assaulted have taken place in the middle of the day and where people were nearby or within shouting distance.

The difference between victim-blaming and a solution-focused approach.

In a world filled with such violence, is it safe for women to jog alone? The question broaches a crucial distinction to draw: the difference between victim-blaming and a solution-focused approach to preventing violence to the extent that is possible. While arguing that women shouldn't jog alone is victim-blaming at its finest, suggesting that there is only one right and reasonable way to do something (in this case, jog) and that avoiding this behavior would prevent an atrocity.

If only such wishful thinking were true, we would have neat and predictable ways to prevent almost any violence toward women. Every day, women are killed by a husband inside their own homes; they are stalked by a co-worker or hunted by an acquaintance.

There is likely no way to prevent all human violence. Violence is enacted for many reasons, none of which are simply–if ever–completely solvable: biological predispositions, environmental influences, and drugs and alcohol.

Unlike victim-blaming, a solution-focused approach to a serious and pervasive problem is reasonable and productive, though it does nothing to take away the emotional pain of those who suffer such a trauma or experience the consequences of a trauma experienced by any particular victim. Once trauma has been experienced, it can't be undone, but we, as a society, can try our best to reduce instances of violence.

A solution-focused approach to jogging more safely.

The assault experienced by Eliza Fletcher matters because every human life counts, and every life is connected to other lives. In her case, she has young children, and young children suffer psychological traumas, too, as a consequence of a parent experiencing one. What matters, as well, are the countless women who will lace up their shoes for a run every day that follows.

The solution that may make the most sense in a sometimes dangerous, nonsensical world is to not focus on women only as it relates to the danger of jogging alone but to think about what would be safest for anyone jogging outside. The act of jogging may be safer if any jogger, regardless of gender, has a running partner. Simply put, running in pairs for all joggers may be safer than running alone.

When it comes to the family, friends, and acquaintances in your own life who jog, it may be an act of kindness and an attempt at protection if you seriously encourage them to take a running partner with them the next time they set out on a run.