Topicquestion: should a bystander of sexual harassment who ignored the situation becharged for the same crime as the harasser? Intro: Sexual Harassers area menace to society and for a bystander to sit around and allow and/or aid the sexualharassment makes them just as horrible. the bystanders of sexual harassmentshould face the same punishment as the harassers face. Even though thepunishment isn’t harsh or jail time, the bystander should have to receive thesame punishment to prove that someone should do the right thing and stand upfor the right reasons.
Often the bystander doesn’t get involved at all insexual harassment when the victim has no one to go to. 1: Sexual Harassment is atype of discrimination that includes the unwanted, forceful sexual advancetowards any other person whether they be a friend, colleague, employee, boss,student, etc. If a person is pressured or requested into doing sexual favors,physically or verbally harassed in any sexual manner or has undesirablemovements or actions made towards them, he or she is a victimof sexual harassment. It canoccur just about anywhere – at a store, walking down the street, during a jobinterview, college – in essence, any public place. The most common area wheresexual harassment takes place is in the workspace. Here, sexual harassment canoccur at any level such as employee to employee, boss to employee, even boss toboss.
Every year about 15,000 sexual harassment cases are taken to the EEOC.Although this sounds like a staggering number, one in three women hasexperienced sexual harassment at work yet over 70% of the occurrences in theworkforce go unreported. In many instances, the victim is too afraid to goand file an accusation because they feel they will suffer retaliation from theharasser in the form of poor performance reviews, being passed up forpromotions or even threats. Sexual harassment puts women in a tough position.Not only does harassment has negative effects on one’s sense of self but, inmany instances, the women continue to tolerate the harassment because they needthe job, or the money, and it continues until a better job comes along. A common misconception isthat males only harass females when, in reality, sexual harassment is notgender specific. Gender bias does not exist in harassers. Females can sexuallyharass men, men can sexually harass other men, and women can sexually harassother women as well.
Another misconception isthat the victims “ask for it” by their choice of clothing or their behavior.This is not true at all. Sexual Harassment stems from the harasser not thevictim. The choice to act inappropriately was made by the harasser not thevictim. Using the victims choice of clothing or their politeness as an excuseis unacceptable and does not defend the harassers actions in any way. Mutualconsent is required and nothing excuses not doing that.
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Another excuse is the “boyswill be boys” or “men just can’t help themselves”. This excuse is commonwhen the harasser is a man because of the stereotype that men’s sexual urgesare difficult to control. However, sexual harassment is not motivated by aperson’s sexual desire alone. Instead, it is motivated by the desire of theharasser to assert power and control over someone else when, in reality, no onehas the right to control another person. 2: Sexual harassment iscovered under The Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The TitleVII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is a federal law that discouragesdiscrimination against a person based off of their religion, sex, race,national origin, etc. This law applies to employers that have 15 or moreemployees and can be applied at the local, state and federal government level.This law is also enforced against private and public universities, anyemployment agencies as well as labor organizations.
Sexual harassment in theworkplace is usually treated as a civil wrong in the U.S. This means that thevictim may sue the harasser in civil court for monetary damages.
Under this act, a victimmust file a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, morecommonly known as the EEOC, against their employer within the first 180 daysafter the first action took place. After filing the charge, the victim may thenbe able to request a Right-To-Sue notice, which gives permission to file theirlawsuit in court. If an employer is found guilty of breaking this Act they canhave a multitude of punishments. Typically, the punishments will include frontand back pay, compensatory damages, punitive damages, and attorney’s fees.
BackPay is repaying the employee with the wages, salary, and fringe benefits thatcould’ve been earned by the employee but were not as a result of thediscriminatory act. Front Pay is money paid back to the plaintiff for lostcompensation during the duration of time between the judgement andreinstatement of if the reinstatement is not feasible. Additionally, theDefendant may be instructed to pay the attorney’s fees for the victim. Theymight also have to pay the compensatory damages for the victim’s future andcurrent: emotional distress, pain, suffering, and any type of mental anguish tothe victim. These punishments are varied based to the employer based off thenumber of employees.
Althoughsexual harassment itself is not a crime, there are some sexually harassingactions that are criminal. Sexual harassment takes the form of many differentactions, some of which violate criminal statutes. Sexual assaults are the mostdeplorable incidents of sexual harassment in which the harasser is also becomesa rapist. In this instance, the assault will most likely may result in acriminal charge of rape against the harasser and a sexual harassment lawsuitagainst the assailant’s employer. Other acts, such as the intentional, offensivephysical contact or threat of such physical may also fall under the state’sassault and/or battery criminal laws.
Video taping someone in a secret waywhile in a private environment, posting sexually offensive comments about aperson on social media or engaging in stalking behavior all violate criminallaws. 3. Research suggests that asubstantial amount of employees directly or indirectly witnessed sexualharassment at work. In one US study, more than 70 percent of women reported seeingother women being sexual harassed in their work environments yet did not reportthe harassment themselves. These witnesses or bystanders essentially enable theharassment because they were aware of the situation occurring yet they chose tonot report it. Assaulters tend to surround themselves with people who are loyal to them.
By doing so, many bystanders suffer from “blind loyalty” to the harassers.Harassers are often protected by a culture of inaction or a culture of silence. Sexual harassment victimsare most often threatened to stay quiet about the situation and do not have theconfidence to disclose to someone what is happening.Bystander intervention is important when the harasser hold a position of poweror prominence. In these situations, the victim is more reluctant to comeforward when a relationship of power or imbalance exists. There are several reasonsbystanders fail to intervene. Society’s objectification of women normalizesharassing behavior.
It’s common to view women as objects not people withfeelings. According to TheConversation, womenare more likely to intervene in sexual harassment situation than men. Men andwomen view harassment differently with women being more uncomfortable harassmentthen men. There is also a false belief that being beautiful is “good”.
TheHerrera study in 2016 reveled that if the harasser is good looking, there is adecreased tendency to view the activity as sexual harassment. 4. Some Businesses believethe best way to prevent sexual harassment and otherpoisonous actions in the workplacewould be to train workers to stand up for their colleagues if any incidents arewitnessed. The trouble with this idea is that people who doobserve harassment in the workplace don’t speak up about it because,unfortunately, there are no consequences, criminal or civil, to the bystander. If a bystander knows whatis happening to the person and helped the harasser in any sort of manner, thebystander could be charged with Aiding and Abetting. When someone is chargedwith Aiding and Abetting they are usually not at the scene when the crime iscommitted.
Rather, he or she has information of the crime, whether it occursbefore or after the fact, he or she might also assist with the crime by givingadvice, certain actions, etc. Bystanders usually shiftthe duty of preventing further harassment to the general population or tosomeone else, but stopping sexual harassment is everyone’s responsibility.Bystanders may lack the confidence to intervene or fear social embarrassment. Usually, the victim ofsexual harassment is too afraid to speak up for themselves and there should besomeone to stand up and speak up for them. The Bystander aids in the sexualharassment when they do not stand up or speak out for the victim. Sometimes thebystander even AIDS in the harassment by taking the victim to area’s with theharasser or by giving tips and information to the harasser. No excuse is acceptable forthe bystander for not notifying someone of the harassment that isoccurring.
The bystander is just as bad as the harasser because they wouldn’tstep up to protect their classmate, coworker, boss etc and allowed for theharassment to continue. They put themselves first even though they are not theone in danger, when potentially, the victims life could be in danger. Theycreate a view to the victim that no one can be trusted anymore because thebystander didn’t stand up for the victim when he or she needed it most.
Bystanders are just as bad as the vicitms because they destroy the trust thatthe victim had for their friends, coworkers, and general population for doingthe right thing.
