Harassment

Harassment is a general term used to describe victimization that is characterized by an imbalance of power between the perpetrator and the victim.

Harassment in a school context involves victimization of a peer by a peer. Harassment may also refer to victimization of a child by an adult (and, in rare cases, victimization of an adult perpetrated by a child or adolescent). There are multiple forms of victimization that fall under the general heading of “harassment,” with two of the most common types of harassment being bullying and sexual harassment.

Bullying has begun to receive popular attention; however, research on bullying has been only active since the pioneering work of Dan Olweus. Olweus (1993) and others define bullying as aggression that is (a) intentional, (b) repeated over time, and (c) perpetrated by a bully who is more powerful than the victim. These defining characteristics of bullying create a situation in which one student is continually intimidated by another and with diminished ability to defend himself or herself. Bullying behavior may be overt (e.g., physical and verbal harassment) or covert (e.g., spreading rumors, gossiping, and social manipulation).

According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, “unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitutes sexual harassment when submission to or rejection of this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual's employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual's work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile [Page 234]or offensive work environment” (Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964—Public Law 88–352). This definition is created to protect adults in a work setting. The equivalency of this law is Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which is under the jurisdiction of the Office of Civil Rights (OCR). This amendment addresses discrimination based on sex. Sexual harassment is carried under this title, and charges of sexual harassment in education are referred to the OCR. The OCR Web site states that:

This statement clearly says that schools are ultimately responsible for ensuring the safety of students and responding to instances of sexual harassment.

The academic literature on bullying and sexual harassment has not been well integrated. There is some debate over whether the term “bullying” is most appropriate to describe all related student experiences. Stein (2003) argues that the term bullying is not “gendered.” Much of what educators consider “bullying,” Stein says, is actually sexual harassment. One distinction made between bullying and sexual harassment is that repetition is a required component of bullying, but not of sexual harassment (Land, 2003). In addition, some researchers note that physical aggression (more indicative of bullying) seems to be most prevalent among younger students, and it transforms into sexual harassment in adolescence (Land, 2003).

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