Legal and Criminological Analysis of Sexual Harassment

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Abstract

Sexual harassment is a form of sexual violence and discrimination against women that increases social insecurity and fear of women in society and so, the individual liberties and social participation of women is reduced. Urbanization and the increasing presence of women in society, have provided a platform for formation of this phenomenon and in this context, gendered culture, compulsive silence of victims and some other factors, led to increased rates of sexual harassment and it became a major social problem.
In this paper, the concept of sexual harassment and its types have been investigated. Then the negative consequences of sexual harassment, its etiology and the ways for its prevention are discussed. With regard to frequency, and difficulty in proving, penal response do not has enough efficiency and effectiveness for controlling this problem. The most effective way is to reform gendered culture and way of thinking about women and the improvement of social space by reducing the generating factors in the perpetrators.

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