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 That represents almost 7 million women and 3 million men who have
reported assault, unwanted sexual contact or verbal harassment by a
boss, supervisor, coworker, customer or client, the study authors
report in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
"Sexual violence is a prevalent issue and is also preventable," said
Kathleen Basile of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention in
Atlanta, Georgia, the study's lead author.
The term "sexual violence" is defined as unwanted penetration
through the use of force, alcohol or drug facilitation; pressured or
coerced sex; unwanted sexual contact, such as groping; unwanted
experiences, such as exposure of sexual body parts and sexual
remarks.
"Given the recent media attention to this issue and the re-emergence
of the #metoo movement, the time seemed right to focus on it,"
Basile told Reuters Health by email.
The researchers analyzed 2010-2012 data from the National Intimate
Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, which included about 23,000
women and 19,000 men. Basile's team studied the prevalence of
several types of sexual violence by a workplace-related perpetrator,
including both authority figures and non-authority figures. They
also looked at the numerous after-effects of these experiences, such
as psychological problems, safety concerns and absence from work or
school.
The study specifically focused on sexual violence by a
workplace-related person but couldn't determine whether the actions
occurred at the workplace itself, the authors note.
The research team found that 5.6% of women and 2.5% of men reported
some type of sexual violence by a workplace-related perpetrator.
About 4% of women reported harassment by non-authority figures and
2% reported harassment by authority figures. About 2% of men
reported harassment by non-authority figures and about 0.6% reported
harassment by authority figures.
For women, the most commonly reported sexual act was unwanted sexual
contact, and for men, it was unwanted sexual experiences such as
sexual remarks.
About 1 million women, or 0.8%, have been raped by a coworker, who
was more likely to be a non-authority figure. About 400,000 men, or
0.4%, have been sexually coerced by a coworker and 184,000 were
forced to penetrate another person.
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"The typical public perception of sexual violence in the workplace
is that it is mostly verbal harassment or creating a hostile work
environment," Basile said. "Sexual violence involving physical
contact, including forced penetration, while not the most common
type, was still reported as having been committed."
For both men and women, fear was the most commonly reported effect
of sexual violence.
"Much of the perpetration is being done not by bosses, as is often
the assumption, but from co-workers and, importantly, clients and
customers," said Adrienne O'Neil of Deakin University in Geelong,
Australia, who wasn't involved in the study.
"I hear this a lot from nurses, psychiatrists and emergency workers,
where they've been made to feel that they are to put up with
unwanted sexual advances and assault because their priority is to
treat patients above all else," she told Reuters Health by email.
"We've known for a long time that these factors put you at risk of
heart attack."
Workplace-related sexual harassment also affects co-workers who
witness the behavior, the victim's loved ones and the victim's
children, said James Campbell Quick of the University of Texas at
Arlington, who wasn't involved in the study.
Company policies should include stricter enforcement around sexual
harassment, he said, which includes providing high-risk employees
with help before they act. Workplaces should "become obsessed with
deviant behavior," he added, and socialize everyone with proper
training, starting with first-line supervisors.
"The greatest tragedy is that this is not a workplace accident,"
Quick told Reuters Health by email. "It is a preventable form of
malicious, motivated behavior. One act of sexual violence in the
workplace raises the threat level for the entire workplace."
SOURCE: https://bit.ly/3619F01 American Journal of Preventive
Medicine, online December 19, 2019.
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