Sexual Harassment vs. Sexual Abuse

            While sexual harassment and sexual abuse are different offenses, they may affect a victim in the same manner.  Sexual harassment is defined as “any form of unsolicited language or touching containing sexual overtones” (Balswick & Balswick, 2008).  Its nature makes the receiver (victim) uncomfortable and denies their ability to choose whether or not they wish to listen to or participate in a conversation.  Sexual harassment occurs primarily in the workplace and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) describes sexual harassment as unwanted sexual advances, a request for a sexual favor, or verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature.  Additionally, they define three factors regarding the sexual harassment: submission to the sexual misconduct is a requirement of employment, submitting to or rejecting the harassment is used to make employment decisions regarding the employee, and the sexual misconduct interferes with the employee’s work performance.  Sexual harassment is not only restricted to the workplace.  It also occurs in academic environments and other areas (Balswick & Balswick, 2008).

            Sexual abuse is loosely defined as a “sexual act imposed on a child or person who lacks emotional, maturational and/or cognitive development” (Balswick & Balswick, 2008, p. 245).  Sexual abusers come from all walks of life and will usually “groom” their victim by exposing them to sexually explicit material, inappropriately disrobing the victim, or in front of the victim, and creating an environment of false intimacy.  A pedophile is one who prefers children as the object of their sexual abuse and are normally in some form of a position of authority over their victim (family member, respected friend, clergy, etc.).  Although less common, sexual abuse by strangers also occur (Balswick & Balswick, 2008).

            Prior to my retirement I was a Sex Crimes Detective with the Sheriff’s Office in my community.  While sexual harassment normally does not violate any laws, sexual abuse does.  I dealt with sex crimes of various natures and the victims were predominately children.  The largest percentage of these children were victimized by close family members (parents, step-parents, siblings, etc.) and only a few of these were ever abused by strangers.  The crime of sexual abuse is much more prevalent than many people.  There were 20 detectives assigned to my office and each of us carried a case load of 40-60 cases each, with the majority of these involving children.  Although it is difficult to view the abuser as a victim, in most of these cases the abuser had also been sexually abused at one point in their childhood.  Even after gaining knowledge about sexual addictions, it is hard to imagine treating these individuals as a counselor.  Most abusers that I was exposed to have previously committed crimes for which they had served prison time and many reoffend while on probation for sex crimes.

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Reference

Balswick, J. K., & Balswick, J. O. (2008). Authentic human sexuality: An integrated Christian approach (2nd ed.). Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic.