Sexual Harassment is a Crime

Wednesday, May 6th, 2009

Some sexually harassing behaviors are violations of criminal law. These can be made up of criminal stalking, attempted assault or assault, and criminal sexual conduct.

It would be good if the victim clearly articulates displeasure over another’s behavior. However, they don’t need to do that. Harassed individuals only need to report the harassment to their employer or police, trigger an investigation, and file a case if they want to press charges against their offender.

Also, take note that even distributing sexually explicit materials including jokes via e-mail or internet websites may constitute sexual harassment. But even if it doesn’t, these are so disruptive and unprofessional. They should warrant discipline from the employer.

In sexual harassment litigation issues, jurors often have strong views about these issues and they have certain expectations from the employers such as:

*Procedures must be in place and it should be in writing
*Such procedures must be followed
*Upon the victim’s complaint, adequate investigation should have been done
*There should be no retaliation to the victim
*The company should exercise fair and consistent treatment to all its employees.

Furthermore, the trial lawyer’s ability to prove or disprove harassment may be dependent on the following factors:

*Credibility of company witnesses
*Credibility of Plaintiff
*Timelines of complaint
*Ulterior motives
*Common sense
*Consistency
*Adequacy of company response
*External validation of behavior (such as when the plaintiff told others about the incident).

Tags: crime, Criminal, criminal law, sexual harassment, trial lawyer
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