The social construction of sexual harassment and assault of university students

This article takes a critical look at the issue of sexual harassment and assault in education, particularly how it is perceived. Firstly it presents questionnaire data collected from students at a Scottish university and compares it with data from the few studies of students in Britain (and New Zealand) and the many studies from North America. Having also presented findings from informal discussion, the paper argues that in order to understand how sexual harassment and assault are construed, the complexity of thinking and behaviour of someone who has experienced harassment needs to be represented. We also need to understand more about how these experiences are perceived, 'thought through', 'lived out' and how knowledge of what is labelled as harassment or assault has been fabricated through our daily social interaction. Without a better understanding it will not be possible to connect experiences of harassment with psychological and organisational outcomes.