NCJ Number
146394
Editor(s)
E Wall
Date Published
1992
Length
262 pages
Annotation
This anthology contains 18 articles presenting some of the major debates in the current research on sexual harassment.
Abstract
It is divided into three sections: Definitions and Policy Descriptions, Explanations and Causes, and Legal Responses. A central theme is the need to decide what constitutes sexual harassment. Victimization of males is a problem that receives little attention, due perhaps in large part to social attitudes that tend to prevent men from admitting they have been harassed. Fear of blame and retaliation, and the loss of self-confidence figure prominently in the minds of female and male victims. One author argues that university harassment policies can be unjustly interpreted to prevent legitimate, as well as illegitimate, associations between instructors and students. Another emphasizes the power differential between instructors and students. A feminist attributes sexual harassment primarily to societal attitudes and conditions, while the controversial Camille Paglia says that society, at best, may contain the forces that naturally propel men to be violent. Others offer opposing opinions on the gender dilemma regarding perceptions of sexual harassment. A case that went to the Supreme Court, Vinson v. Taylor, revolved around the issue of victim precipitation.