An assessment of the perceptions in the general population of sexual harassment

Historically,it is not uncommon to see a victim of sexual abuse being blamed for triggering her own harassment.This revolves mostly around the appearance of the victim where the victim is accused of being “provocatively” dressed. Jensen and Gutek suggest that men are more likely to blame the victims of sexual harassment than women.Other researchers have not found significant gender differences in perceptions of sexual harassment.Sexual harassment is not an unusual phenomenon in India.Male harassers are usually older,while female harassers are generally younger.Victims have been of all ages,from neonates to senior citizens. For this cross-sectional study,random sampling was done.A structured questionnaire consisting of questions pertaining to respondents’ demographic information like age, gender, location,and education along with whether or not they have experienced sexual harassment in their life was framed.Statements based on chosen constructs along with instructions to rate them on a 5 point scale with 1 being strong disagreement and 5 being strong agreement was distributed to the sample population.Quantitative analysis was done. Primary data was collected from 287 respondents. It appears that the ignorance of the victims is more likely to convey consent,agreement,or approval on the part of the victim. This has important practical implications since it is quite possible that the ignorance may give an impression of rationality to the harassment resulting in recurrence and may not even be taken seriously by a witness.Too often women in India are stuck in a sticky situation of blaming and shaming,from where there is not much hope of redemption.