Reporting and Infrequency

We’ve written before about the portrayal of report sexual harassment in the media. In short, blame is often transferred to the survivor.

But how often is sexual harassment reported?

-An opinion piece states that in Florida schools in 2007-2008 there were 1,287 reports of sex offenses, and only 2,150 reports of sexual harassment.

- In stories about subway sexual harassment, there were less than 600 reports of harassment annually.

-Approximately 38% of New York City students report bias-based harassment at their school.

-Girls for Gender Equity’s youth led Participatory Action Research, not yet in publication, shows that when youth are asked about whether specific sexually harassing behaviors happen in their school, such as pinching or teasing, the rates are as high as 60%. When asked if they have ever reported the behavior, less than 5% had.

Since NYC has over 1 million students, if we follow this logic, the number of individuals experiencing harassment, outside or inside their schools, is astronomical.

But in 1.1 million students, how many students have reported sexual harassment?

If the remarkably low frequency of reporting was recognized, policy and media coverage would have to change. In this blog post by Dr. Karen Rayne, she discusses the media reporting of a student on student sexual assault at a middle school in Austin, Texas. The media has focused on the idea that this is an “isolated incident” ignoring that “the vast majority of sexual assaults, abuse, and harassment is not reported.”

She ends her post saying:

Ideally we would live in a culture where this sort of thing never happened. But we don’t live in an ideal world, and pretending we do isn’t going to make it so. The only way to reduce sexual abuse is by bringing it out in the open and having the extraordinarily painful conversations that it requires.

We must have the painful conversations before the harassment and assault occurs, as well as encourage those who have been harassed or assaulted to step forward. Both steps are necessary in the fight to end the systemic sexual harassment in our culture and schools.

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