Chapter Seventeen

1
Chapter Seventeen

• Sexual Coercion Harassment, Aggression, and
  Abuse

2
Sexual Harassment

• Refers to 2 types of behavior
• the abuse of power for sexual ends
• Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual
  favors
• Other verbal or physical sexual conduct as
  condition for schooling or employment
• creation of a hostile environment
• Interferes with performance at school or at work
• Illegal

3
What Is Sexual Harassment?

• Unwelcome sexual advances
• Requests for sexual favors
• Verbal or physical contact of a sexual nature
  when
• Explicitly or implicitly affects and individuals
  employment
• Unreasonably interferes with an individuals work
  performance
• Creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive
  work environment

4
Flirtation versus Harassment

• Whether flirtation is sexual harassment depends
  on 3 factors
• whether you have equal power
• whether you are approached appropriately
• whether you wish to continue contact
• Different cultural expectations lead to
  misinterpretation
• Men and women perceive actions differently

5
Harassment in School and College

• Harassment in elementary and high school
• Often called fun or teasing, but intimidates,
  humiliates, and embarrasses victims
• One third of high school girls and one in eight
  boys want to quit school due to harassment
• Most often happens when boys are in groups
• Harassment in college
• Over 60 of male and female college students
  have been harassed by students or staff

6
Harassment in the Workplace

• Many women are not informed about sexual
  harassment
• Most common in formerly all-male occupations
• Recent survey showed 21 of women, 7 of men were
  sexually harassed at work
• Romantic relationships in the work place are
  problematic

7
Harassment and Discrimination Against Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual, andTransgendered People

• Heterosexual bias heterosexism
• Ignoring existence of lesbian, gay, bisexual
  people
• Segregating gay, lesbian, bisexual people
• Lumping gay, lesbian, bisexual people into larger
  category
• Prejudice, Discrimination, and Violence
• Anti-gay prejudice
• Homophobia
• Gay bashing

8
Harassment and Discrimination Against Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered People

• Effects on heterosexuals
• Discrimination and anti-discrimination laws
• Violence against gay men and lesbian women
• Personal sources of anti-gay prejudice
• Ending anti-gay prejudice

9
Sexual Aggression

• Principal motive is power, not sexual pleasure
• Sexual aggression broad term for sexual activity
  performed against a persons will
• Sexual coercion arguing, pleading, and cajoling,
  as well as force and threat of force
• Sexual assault forced sexual contact that does
  not necessarily include penile-vaginal intercourse

10
The Nature and Incidence of Rape

• Does not give the victim pleasure
• Forces intimate contact
• May involve a man or woman victim
• Women fear rape throughout their lives

11
Prevalence in the United States

• Sexual assault occurs every 2.5 minutes
• 90 victims of sexual crime were women
• 1.5 victims per 1000 women over the age of 12
• 0.2 victims per 1000 men over the age of 12
• Over 70 of victims knew assailant

12
Rape

• Force was used in 80 of reported assaults
• 67 of victims showed signs of general body
  trauma
• 27 of assaults involved the use of a weapon
• Defining rape as forced vaginal, oral, and anal
  intercourse, 18 of women and 3 of men in the
  U.S. have been raped
• Over half of victims report the assault occurred
  before they were 18 years old

13
Myths about Rape

• Rape is a crime of passion
• Women want to be raped
• Women are raped only by strangers
• Women could avoid rape if they really wanted to
• Women cry rape for revenge

• Rapists are crazy or psychotic
• Most rapists are a different race than their
  victims
• Men cannot control their sexual urges
• Rape is no big deal
• Men cannot be raped

14
Forms of Rape

• Date rape
• Stranger rape
• Marital rape
• Gang rape
• Statutory rape
• Male rape

15
Date Rape

• Usually not planned
• Drug/alcohol use by assailant or victim in 70 of
  cases
• Lifetime incidence for women 13-27
• Confusion over consent
• Post refusal sexual persistence
• A date raper profile
• Acquaintance rape

16
Motivations for Rape

• Anger rape
• Physically violent, victims often hospitalized
• Power rape
• Act of dominance to restore assailants sense of
  control
• Sadistic rape
• Brutal, victim often severely injured
• Least frequent

17
The Aftermath of Rape

• African American women less likely than Whites to
  report rape, seek treatment
• Rape trauma syndrome
• Depression, anxiety, restlessness, guilt
• Symptoms consistent with posttraumatic stress
  disorder (PTSD)
• 31 of rape victims develop PTSD
• Effects on sexuality
• Fear of sex, lack of desire

18
Child Sexual Abuse

• Any sexual interaction between an adult and a
  prepubertal childincluding nonphysical contact
• Categorized in terms of kin relationship
• Extra familial abuse by unrelated people
• Intra familial abuse by relatives, step
  relatives
• Nonpedophilic sexual abuseabuse not sexually
  motivated, usually to get power, affection
• May involve force, threat, manipulation, pressure
• Most victims 8-12 years old boys and girls
  equally likely to be abused

19
General Preconditions for Child Sexual Abuse

• Being motivated to sexually abuse a child
• Emotional congruence fulfills some emotional
  need
• Sexual attraction to the child
• Blockage does not find alternative sexual
  outlets
• Overcoming internal inhibitions against acting on
  motivation
• Overcoming external obstacles to committing
  sexual abuse
• Undermining or overcoming a childs potential
  resistance

20
Forms of Intra familial Sexual Abuse

• Incest
• Father-daughter sexual abuse
• Brother-sister sexual abuse
• Uncle-niece sexual abuse
• Most common form of intrafamilial sexual abuse

21
Children at Risk

• Female children
• Preadolescent children (ages 10-12)
• Children who are vulnerable because
• they are separated from their parents
• their parents cannot supervise them
• their relationships with parents are poor
• their parents are unavailable
• their parents are in conflict
• they live with a stepfather

22
Effects of Child Sexual Abuse

• Initial effects occurring in the first 2 years
• emotional disturbances
• Fear, anger, hostility, guilt, shame
• physical consequences
• Changes in sleeping, eating, pregnancy, STIs
• sexual disturbances
• Open masturbation, sexual preoccupation
• social disturbances
• School problems, running away, early marriages

23
Effects of Child Sexual Abuse

• Long-term effects
• depression
• self-destructive tendencies
• somatic disturbances and dissociation
• Anxiety, eating disorders, feeling that things
  are unreal
• negative self-conceptlow self-esteem, isolation
• interpersonal relationship difficulties
• revictimizationabused child raped again as adult
• sexual problems

24
Sexual Abuse Trauma

• Traumatic sexualization
• Inappropriately associate sexual behaviors and
  emotions
• Betrayal
• Adult survivors find trust difficult, may become
  dependent or angry
• Powerlessness
• Fear, anxiety, sense of not control
• Stigmatization
• Guilt, shame

25
Treatment Programs

• Therapy with intact family
• Help family come to terms with the abuse
• Treat individuals as well as family
• May include substance abuse programs
• Self help programs

26
Preventing Child Sexual Abuse

• Child abuse prevention (CAP) programs aimed at 3
  audiences
• Children
• Stress that abuse is not the childs fault
• Say no, get away, tell a trusted adult
• Parents
• Help parents discover abuse, identify warning
  signs
• Professionals
• Teachers, physicians, police, mental health
  workers

27
Summary

• Sexual harassment
• Harassment and discrimination against gay,
  lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people
• Sexual aggression
• Child sexual abuse