The Alarm Grenade to Help Men Feel Safe Walking Home

In an ideal world, I wouldn't be catcalled while taking a run. I wouldn't wear pants in the blistering heat of Florida summers. Tiny, pink bra gun holsters wouldn't be on the market and I wouldn't get pepper spray as a Christmas present.

In the real world, many women feel like they need these devices. One in four women experience sexual assault on college campuses, according to the Association of American Universities. Approximately 20 percent of all women in the United States have been sexually assaulted, with strangers accounting for about one quarter of attackers. New companies like Athena and CUFF have realized this and capitalized on this news, offering "sexy security" for women to stay safe yet stylish in the 21st century.

The assumption that any safety device should be in bracelet form, however, overlooks a spate of recent evidence that men are victimized just as much as—if not more than—women. According to a National Crime Victimization Survey, the rate of violence against men by strangers was twice that against females. In the April 17 edition of the American Journal of Public Health, the authors of The Sexual Victimization of Men in America: New Data Challenge Old Assumptions explain that victimization against men is "in many circumstances similar to the prevalence found among women," and they fault the reliance on traditional gender stereotypes for perpetuating the underreporting.

That underreporting can lead to things like women-only self defense classes or gendered safety jewelry, which are well-intentioned but effectively exclusionary. The co-founder of wearable tech startup Robocopp, Jill Turner, thinks this is hurting both men and women—and ignoring a significant consumer market. "You're just furthering this prejudice against women that we need it more than men," she said.

Along with co-founder Sam Mansen, Turner and her team have created the first wearable safety device without those hard lines in mind. The little blue device is kawaii; an item to be added to an incoming freshman's college checklist, not displayed like a diamond in the latest Vogue.

Robocopp's Grenade clips on to a backpack or keys, and when activated, emits a siren as loud as an ambulance for up to 30 minutes. But can 120 decibels actually deter assault? 120 decibels is a chainsaw, a thunderclap or a metal concert. For half a minute, the screech is enough to shock furtive pickpocketers into retreat and alert the surrounding 6 blocks of your situation. For first time muggers, "fear was the dominant emotion," Maurice Cusson explained in a University of Montreal study, Situational Deterrence: Fear During the Criminal Event. "The sounding of an alarm and the resistance of the victim quite often succeed in putting robbers to flight."

Then again, "If somebody has a gun and they are determined to shoot you, nothing is going to stop them," Mansen admitted. "But in situations when you'd typically be unarmed and you plan on carrying pepper spray, Robocopp is definitely a safer and more effective alternative to that," he said.

Mansen is a former US Air Force engineer and is now using his training in global positioning systems in the Bay Area startup world. He says that Robocopp's next step is to add GPS to its features. "Every year it becomes cheaper and easier to build a standalone GPS device," he said. "I thought, 'Why does something like this not exist?'" His sister's long, unarmed night walks home from the Berkeley campus gave him the final push to start his company.

Unlike other safety wearables, the Grenade is not tethered to your smartphone and doesn't call your friends and family; it calls the police. "When you press the button, it goes to a dispatcher just like the alarm system at your house. The dispatcher gives the police your exact location," Mansen told me.

As smart safety necklaces and bracelets grow in popularity, Robocopp differentiates itself by being purely functional. "Violence is not gender-specific," Mansen told me. "Men don't like being kidnapped, men don't like being raped. Men don't like being mugged, either."

For any of these wearable safety devices to be effective on men or women, however, potential victims first need to be trained.

Jim Hopper is a clinical psychologist and a part-time instructor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. His research deals with the neurobiology of trauma, and he writes about why we don't react to attacks like we've planned. Hopper said that safety wearables like Robocopp's Grenade will only work if you've been trained to use them reflexively. "It could be the greatest tool in the world, but if you haven't practiced using it, you're not going to think of it," he said. "All you've got to fall back on is reflexes and habits."

Unless repeatedly conditioned to use the device in a high-stress environment, it could create a false illusion of safety. "The person would probably need to have practiced using it in realistic simulated attacks, otherwise they're not going to think to use it when the fear kicks in."

And a small button on your smart jewelry or pin on your keychain isn't going to be handy when you're sitting on a couch, drunk with a friend who turns into an attacker. "Most sexual assaults are not perpetrated by strangers," said Hopper. "I doubt this would be useful in non-stranger assaults, whatever the gender of the victim."