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SEXUAL HARASSMENT

POPULATION

Information regarding lifetime experiences of sexual harassment was obtained from men and women aged 18 years and over in the 2016 PSS.

DEFINITION

Sexual harassment is considered to have occurred when a person has experienced or been subjected to one or more selected behaviours which they found improper or unwanted, which made them feel uncomfortable, and/or were offensive due to their sexual nature.

METHODOLOGY

The sexual harassment module consists of a set of questions asking about experiences of sexual harassment in the respondents lifetime and in the 12 months prior to the survey. Questions in this topic are asked once for sexual harassment by a man and then repeated for sexual harassment by a woman.
Respondents are asked if they have ever experienced any of the following behaviours, and which they found improper, unwanted, or offensive, due to their sexual nature:

Indecent phone call

• Includes:
  • Phone calls that went to voicemail or answering machines

• Excludes:
  • Phone calls or messages in which profanity was used, unless this was offensive due to its sexual nature
  • Phone calls or messages involving racial vilification, unless this was offensive due to its sexual content e.g. implying that people of a particular cultural group have certain sexual characteristics
  • Phone calls or messages that were part of a stalking incident (these are recorded in the Stalking module)

• Includes:
  • Electronic messages (such as text messages, SMS, MMS, posts on Facebook, emails, or other Internet messages) as well as post sent in the mail
  • Written messages (such as letters delivered by mail or notes) left where they could be found by the person
  • 'Post’ includes both posting information on internet social networking sites, and post sent via the mail
• Excludes:
  • Messages in which profanity was used, unless this was offensive due to its sexual content
  • Messages involving racial vilification, unless this was offensive due to its sexual content e.g. implying that people of a particular cultural group have certain sexual characteristics
  • Messages that were part of a stalking incident (these are recorded in the Stalking module)

• Includes:
  • Exposing genitals for the purpose of distressing, shocking, humiliating and/or generating fear in a person

• Includes:
  • Inappropriate comments in a group situation as well as when the respondent is alone with the person who is harassing them
  • Sexual comments that are related to the respondent’s race, such as implying that people of a particular cultural group have certain sexual characteristics

• Includes:
  • Momentary or brief touching or contact, for example groping or brushing against a breast or bottom
• Excludes:
  • Incidents of a sexual nature which were longer than momentary (these are recorded as sexual assault in the Violence module)

• Includes:
  • Taking a photo or video which was sexual in nature without their consent, or showing/sending/posting the photos/videos which were sexual in nature without their consent

• Includes:
  • Emailing the person or making them watch pornography
  • Displaying posters, magazines or screen savers of a sexual nature for the person to see

• The estimated number and proportion (rate) of persons that have experienced sexual harassment (including specific types of harassment) by a man and/or woman during the last 12 months or in their lifetime
• Differences in the sexual harassment prevalence rate between men and women, including specific types of sexual harassment

• Whether or not any sexual harassment amounted to a criminal offence cannot be determined from the information collected.
• The PSS only asks respondents about selected sexual harassment behaviours, and therefore may not capture all forms of sexual harassment that exist.
• The recognition and identification of any behaviour as sexual harassment is based on the respondent’s subjective beliefs regarding the nature and perceived intent of the behaviour. Individual differences in thresholds for what constitutes improper, unwanted, or offensive behaviour will affect how respondents interpret and answer these questions.
• Where a person has experienced sexual harassment by both a male and a female, they are counted separately for each sex of perpetrator but are counted only once in the aggregated total.
• Unlike other data in this survey, questions about sexual harassment are not restricted by a particular age period (e.g. since the age of 15 or before the age of 15). This should be kept in mind when comparing data from this topic with data from other topics.
• The PSS does not collect any detailed information about characteristics of actions taken for the sexual harassment experience.

• The 1996 WSS only collected information about women’s experiences of sexual harassment by a man. The 2005, 2012, and 2016 PSS collected information about men’s and women’s experiences of sexual harassment by both a man and a woman.
• The 2012 and 2016 PSS only included instances where the sexual harassment behaviours experienced by the respondent were found to be improper or offensive due to their sexual nature. The 1996 WSS and 2005 PSS merely determined if respondents had ever experienced the sexual harassment behaviours, and did not ask whether the respondent found the behaviours to be improper or offensive due to their sexual nature. Therefore, comparisons between sexual harassment data in the 2012 and 2016 PSS surveys are unable to be made with data from the 1996 WSS or the 2005 PSS.
• New sexual harassment behaviours have been included into the 2016 PSS (such as the use of information and communications technology) in order to accurately capture emerging trends in experiences of sexual harassment. Although these behaviours may have previously been collected as part of other categories, this should be considered when comparing sexual harassment prevalence rates between the 2012 and 2016 cycles.
  
  

	1996 Women's Safety Survey	2005 Personal Safety Survey	2012 Personal Safety Survey	2016 Personal Safety Survey
Population	Women aged 18 years and older	Men and women aged 18 years and older	Men and women aged 18 years and older	Men and women aged 18 years and older
Timeframe	Whether ever experienced sexual harassment in lifetime	Whether ever experienced sexual harassment in lifetime	Whether ever experienced sexual harassment in lifetime	Whether ever experienced sexual harassment in lifetime
Perpetrator sex	Male	Male and female	Male and female	Male and female
Sexual harassment behaviours	Obscene phone call Indecent exposure by a man Inappropriate comments about body/sex life by a man Unwanted sexual touching by a man	Obscene phone call Indecent exposure Inappropriate comments about body/sex life Unwanted sexual touching	Indecent phone calls Indecent text, email, or post Indecent exposure Inappropriate comments about body/sex life Unwanted touching, grabbing, kissing, fondling	Indecent phone calls Indecent text, email or post Indecent exposure Inappropriate comments about body or sex life Unwanted touching, grabbing, kissing or fondling Distributing or posting pictures or videos of the person without their consent Exposed to pictures or videos
Comparability	1996 data is comparable with 2005 data, but not comparable with 2012 and 2016 data.	2005 data is comparable with 1996 data, but not comparable with 2012 and 2016 data.	2012 data is generally considered comparable with 2016 data, but not comparable to 1996 or 2005 data.	2016 data is generally considered comparable with 2012 data, but not comparable to 1996 or 2005 data.