Sexual harassment of students - survey results

Abstract

This paper aims to present results of the survey on sexual harassment of students of the Faculty of Special Education and Rehabilitation, University of Belgrade. It starts with presenting and discussing different definitions of the term ?sexual harassment?. Afterwards, a brief overview of available surveys on this subject is provided. Results of the surveys completed so far show that this kind of students? victimization in educational institutions is frequent in all parts of the world, regardless of the economic, ethnic and religious grounds. The aim of the survey conducted at the Faculty of Special Education and Rehabilitation (FASPER) was to identify the prevalence and characteristics of sexual harassment among undergraduate students, as well as possible forms of assistance and support to students who experience sexual harassment. A survey was conducted by the students of FASPER during April and May 2014 on a sample of 147 students of all four years of undergraduate studies. For data collection a victimization survey was used. The survey results suggested that sexual harassment of students of FASPER is prevalent, while it only manifests itself in a form of verbal harassment with a sexual connotation. Female students are more exposed to harassment than male students, but we need to interpret this finding with a caution due to the fact that a sample was mostly consisted of female respondents. According to the students? opinion, possible solutions for preventing and eliminating sexual harassment of students of FASPER are education of students and employees, adoption of rules for protection of students from this kind of victimization and establishment of support service for students who experience victimization by sexual harassment.