Sexual harassment

[Elamys]

When you have any reputable statistics to show for this maybe you can attempt it as an argument.

If you want statistics and information, then here's plenty for you.

Psychology Today has a pretty good article about why victims of harassment frequently don't speak up sooner ( https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/b...forward-sooner )

This sense of shame often causes victims to blame themselves for the sexual misconduct of their perpetrator. Case in point, Lee Corfman, the woman who reported to a Washington Post reporter that she was molested by Roy Moore when she was 14, said, “I felt responsible. I thought I was bad.” Time after time, clients who experienced sexual harassment at work or at school have told me things like: “I assumed it was my fault. I’m a very friendly person, and I always smiled and said hello to my boss. I think he must have thought I was flirting with him.” Another client, a student who was sexually assaulted by one of her college professors told me, “I liked all the attention I was getting from him. We’d sit for hours in his office talking, and I was learning a lot from him. I guess I was sending him the wrong message.”

The New York Times did a good writeup on reasons why people doubt harassment and sexual misconduct cases (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/30/u...ein-women.html) The reasons they have given are: they didn't act like a victim, they stayed friendly with their abuser, they didn't come forward right away, their story doesn't "add up," and they didn't fight back.

In relation specifically to sexual assault, MCASA's report on why survivors often don't report cites that it is often not reported because they believe it is not important enough, among a wide variety of other reasons. Only 9 percent of the perpetrators of sexual assault will ever be prosecuted. (https://ocrsm.umd.edu/files/Why-Is-S...r-Reported.pdf)

Vox did a really fantastic writeup on the prevalence of sexual harassment in the workplace (https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/...rassment-facts) citing a number of different studies, including the EEOC's 2016 study on sexual harassment (https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/task_force...oad/report.pdf) which found that 75 percent of workplace harassment victims experienced retaliation upon reporting.

A lot of this underreporting comes down to a fear of retaliation from the employers or colleagues. Victims often fear they won’t be believed, or will receive blame or be subject to professional retaliation — like being fired from their jobs.

Culture Amp, a website about workplace culture, reported on an Australian Human Rights Commission survey that found only 20% of harassment victims reported (https://www.humanrights.gov.au/sites...on%20Final.pdf). CA interviewed the provider of a whistleblowing service for more information as to why victims don't report (https://blog.cultureamp.com/why-dont...ual-harassment).

Luker concedes this is still a common and open question. “Some of the headline reasons are a lack of support and protection,” he says. “People may not feel comfortable speaking up when there's a lack of robust policies, procedural rigor or reporting frameworks. Also, when there's a perceived or actual lack of consequences, lack of commitment from leaders or the feeling the perpetrator won't get caught because there won’t be a thorough investigation, people don’t feel safe reporting wrongdoing.”

Luker and the Your Call team have also seen people be held back by feelings of personal guilt about the incident, feelings that they somehow caused or contributed to the behavior of the perpetrator.

NBC News did another writeup concerning the physical and mental effects of not only harassment itself but also of reporting it (https://www.nbcnews.com/better/healt...ent-ncna810416)

Dr. Cullen adds that the feelings of shame or guilt that a person may feel when sexually harassed at work can devastate their self-esteem and sense of self-worth as a professional.

“They may feel that they did something to make this happen or egg it on in some way,” says Cullen.

...and on and on and on.

It only seems to be in cases of harassment and abuse that people are keen to lean on the "innocent until proven guilty" line (which only matters in an actual court, by the way, not the court of public opinion). I'm not going to sit here and say that you're not allowed to be skeptical, but that same skepticality should be applied equally to all crimes, and it just isn't. Referring back to the NYT article from earlier:

Partly this is because of widespread misconceptions. The public and the police vastly overestimate the incidence of false reports: The most solid, case-by-case examinations say that only 5 to 7 percent of sexual assault reports are false.

The Independent also did a good article on this subject of false reports (https://www.independent.co.uk/voices...-a8077876.html) which cites that the UK's Home Office found that only 4% of reports of sexual violence were found to be false.

TLDR: Victims already feel personal guilt; they already feel that they did something wrong; and when the perpetrators of abuse and harassment see that reports of such are overwhelmingly met with "why did you do X when you knew Y would happen" they may feel empowered to act this way because they think they won't face any repercussions for their actions. Victims don't falsely report any more than they do for any other crime; you're campaigning against an issue that doesn't exist and rubbing salt in the wounds victims already have.

Are you close to that victim? Did that victim ask for your help or your opinion? No? Then you don't need to talk about "what they could have done different."