Reconnaître et gérer les conséquences du harcèlement dans l’espace « public »

Abstract

Harassment presupposes the existence of aggressive and repetitive intentional behaviors aimed at harming a person (or obtaining from her an unwanted sexual relationship), within the context of an asymmetrical relationship of dominant-dominated. The different forms of harassment are partly characterized by the context in which they occur. This paper is about harassment in “public” spaces in the broad sense (not restricted to urban spaces) as opposed to “private” spaces (intimate, family): workplace bullying, street harassment, school bullying and sexual harassment (its link with the other types of harassment is examined in this paper). For workplace bullying and street harassment, definitions, legislative frameworks, the prevalence, types of strategies used and types of aggressive acts, as well as characteristics of perpetrators and victims are discussed. Despite the similarities between the different forms of bullying, there are specificities. For example, street harassment is characterized by a low degree of acquaintanceship between the perpetrator and the victim (who usually don’t know each other), and by a limited duration of the interactions between them. The victim may have a perception of continuity through the repetition of sexual solicitations (or sexual aggressions) by different perpetrators during her urban journeys. Sexual harassment increases with age at school, with a peak of “sexual” school bullying among young adulthood. Prevalence of sexual harassment is very high: more than two thirds of women reported having already, experienced sexist remarks, and more than half have suffered sexual harassment (unwanted sexual attention) in their lifetime versus less than a third of men. Sexual harassment and sexual coercion share a close proximity and the same determinants. The agonistic continuum (relationship of domination up to sexual sadism), sexual harassment and sexual coercion are the three component of sexual misconducts. This should lead us to systematically look for the presence of a sexual harassment in order to have levers for the prevention of sexual coercion and, more broadly, for all abusive sexual behaviors. The various forms of harassment are reflective of power relationships and violence in which gender violence can be included. Beyond their regulations, this raises the question of the foundations of our society and its necessary evolution.