#Wetoo? Sexual harassment in academia. Promoting a gender criminology

Abstract

In the wake of the scientific interest shown towards gender-based violence by the Italian criminology and its affiliated Journal (Italian Journal of Criminology), the authors address a topic that has been much neglected so far, that is sexual harassment in academia. The paper provides definitions of sexual harassment, and explores the dimensions and aspects that characterise it. Data available in the world, specifically in Europe, are synthetically presented, along with the very few existing studies in Italy up to date. Factors that encourage the occurrence of sexual harass-ment within the academic world are explained taking into consideration the different disciplines (e.g., science or humanities). Difficulties in reporting any experience of sexual harassment endured and the “culture of silence” in which the phenomenon is embedded, are among the most prominent factors sustaining it. The negative consequences for the victims, and for academic institutions and research in general, are manifold. Particular attention is devoted to strategies to prevent and repress the sexual harassment in academia, reporting the suggestions that have emerged at an international level, the resources in the occupational and criminal law, and above all the proposals that have emerged from the scientific studies available. The implementation of criminological research – in which the authors are about to engage – is the first and one of the most important means of developing awareness about sexual harassment in academia, and its prevention.