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Sexual and Gender-Based Harassment and Violence: Home

A guide to information and resources about sexual harassment and sexual violence

Welcome

Welcome to the Sexual and Gender-Based Harassment and Violence research guide. This guide provides resources for conducting scholarly research on the topic as as well as links to Adelphi University, local, state, and national resources. It also includes links for reporting and support.

Sexual Harassment, Sexual Violence and Gender-Based Harassment & Violence: Definitions

From the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission:

Sexual Harassment

It is unlawful to harass a person (an applicant or employee) because of that person's sex. Harassment can include "sexual harassment" or unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature.

Harassment does not have to be of a sexual nature, however, and can include offensive remarks about a person's sex. For example, it is illegal to harass a woman by making offensive comments about women in general.

Both victim and the harasser can be either a woman or a man, and the victim and harasser can be the same sex.

Although the law doesn't prohibit simple teasing, offhand comments, or isolated incidents that are not very serious, harassment is illegal when it is so frequent or severe that it creates a hostile or offensive work environment or when it results in an adverse employment decision (such as the victim being fired or demoted).

The harasser can be the victim's supervisor, a supervisor in another area, a co-worker, or someone who is not an employee of the employer, such as a client or customer.

Source: EEOC 

 

From the U. S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights:

 

Title IX requires schools to take steps to prevent and remedy two forms of sex-based harassment:  sexual harassment (including sexual violence) and gender-based harassment.

Sexual harassment is unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature. It includes unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal, nonverbal, or physical conduct of a sexual nature.

Sexual violence is a form of sexual harassment. Sexual violence, as OCR uses the term, refers to physical sexual acts perpetrated against a person’s will or where a person is incapable of giving consent. A number of different acts fall into the category of sexual violence, including rape, sexual assault, sexual battery, sexual abuse, and sexual coercion.

Title IX also prohibits:

Gender-based harassment, which is unwelcome conduct based on a student’s sex, harassing conduct based on a student’s failure to conform to sex stereotypes.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education Office for Civil Rights

From the Centers for Disease Control (CDC): 

Gender-based violence (GBV) is any form of violence against an individual based on biological sex, gender identity or expression, or perceived adherence to socially-defined expectations of what it means to be man or woman, boy or girl. This includes physical, sexual, and psychological abuse; threats; coercion; arbitrary deprivation of liberty; and economic deprivation, whether occurring in public or private life. GBV is rooted in gender-related power differences.

 

From the NYC Mayor's Office to End Domestic & Gender-Based Violence:

Gender-based violence is a general term used to capture any type of violence that is rooted in exploiting unequal power relationships between genders. This can include gender norms and role expectations specific to a society as well as situational power imbalances and inequities. Gender-based violence can impact anyone, and can include intimate partner and family violence, elder abuse, sexual violence, stalking and human trafficking.