Staff Sexual Misconduct Research Articles

Who is the Practitioner in Faculty-Staff Sexual Misconduct Work?: Views from the UK and US.

This article maps and compares four universities' policies and procedures for addressing faculty and staff sexual misconduct in higher education in the UK and US. While universities have engaged in significant work to grapple with student-student sexual misconduct, attention to misconduct perpetrated, and experienced, by higher education employees is relatively nascent. In this paper, we explore the maze of institutional processes and actors that victim-survivors of FASSM might encounter. We describe what is known about prevalence of FASSM in the US and UK and offer an overview of the policy landscape in both settings. Inspired by Patricia Yancey Martin, we analyze publicly available policy documents on FASSM from two US and two UK universities and map out visually the range of investigative, reporting, and sanctioning processes. We introduce an analytic distinction between an actor and a practitioner within the FASSM context, whereby actors are those tasked with administrative duties in handling sexual misconduct reports, while practitioners are those with specialized knowledge and training that enables them to prioritize victim-survivor needs. These illustrative diagrams suggest that while university employees are tasked to act on reports and disclosures of sexual misconduct, it is difficult to identify specialist practitioners with expertise to support victim-survivors of FASSM. Ultimately, this work provides a deeper understanding of what practice looks like in relation to higher education FASSM, and we outline implications for future research directions.

Catalysts and rationales for reporting staff sexual misconduct to UK higher education institutions

The majority of research on reporting of sexual violence and harassment has focused on reasons why women don’t report their experiences rather than examining why they do. This article takes this discussion into the higher education setting, drawing on interviews with 16 students and early career researchers in the UK who considered or attempted to report staff sexual misconduct to their institution and analysing their motivations for doing so. The motivations are broken down into two aspects: the immediate catalysts that triggered the report or disclosure, and the deeper rationales for why interviewees made this decision. Separating catalysts and rationales for reporting in this way allows different levels of decision-making over time to become clearer. Interviewees’ catalysts for reporting included leaving their institution, needing an extension on an assignment, protecting their own physical safety, or being validated by a third party. By contrast, the main rationale that interviewees gave for trying to report staff sexual misconduct was to prevent other women being targeted. Further rationales identified were fighting injustice and reporting for academic or career-related reasons. Higher education institutions’ policies and practices in this area need to take into account these different levels of decision-making around disclosure and reporting.

“Terrified of a System I Didn’t Understand”: Reporting Staff Sexual Misconduct Against Women on Parole

Incarcerated women experience staff-perpetrated sexual victimization at high rates, yet limited research exists regarding women’s experiences of this victimization while on probation and parole, particularly regarding their formal reporting decisions. This qualitative study explored the formal reporting decisions for 10 women who experienced staff-perpetrated sexual victimization while on parole. Women who formally reported their victimization experiences qualitatively differed from non-reporting women in terms of the dynamics and their identification of victimization (e.g., viewing as support vs. fear) and in the types of structural barriers (e.g., vulnerability and cautionary tales) they encountered. These findings highlight policy, practice, theory, and research directions.

Joining up well-being and sexual misconduct data and policy in HE: ‘To stand in the gap’ as a feminist approach

This article joins up evidence and policy relating to two linked concerns in higher education (HE) that are treated as unrelated: postgraduate research student (PGR) well-being, and staff sexual misconduct towards students. Against the standard methodology of systematic reviews, we build on feminist approaches to apply a ‘re-performance’ approach to the review. Re-performance re-enacts established methods, contextualising previous analysis through ethnographic and desk-based research, exposing gaps in evidence, analysis, representation, care and policy. We reveal how aspects of PGR experience, particularly the cultures that engender ill-being and enable sexual misconduct, are silenced in evidence-making. Our ‘re-performance’ uncovers how this occurs in three ways, through: the (mis)construction of the ‘typical student’ in well-being literatures; the (mis)construction of the phenomenon of ‘well-being’ exacerbated by generic survey tools focusing on a medicalised model of mental health; the (mis)construction of HE institutions as integrated, agential and ethical, aided by the fragmentation of administrative systems and knowledge production between disciplines. Together, these organising modes conceal lack of care, staff sexual misconduct and poor well-being. From these findings, specific policy issues are identified: the risks to giving more responsibility to supervisors for PGR well-being; a pattern of institutional listening while silencing; and the need to explore feedback loops between patterns of vulnerability to ill-being and staff sexual misconduct. Through our analysis, the article demonstrates how to ‘stand in the gaps’ – between knowledges; and between evidence and action; between policy and care – in a way that can be generalised across policy domains, epistemologies and policy-making contexts.

"He Acted as If He Owned Me": An Exploratory Case Study Analysis of Correctional Staff Sexual Misconduct Against Women on Parole.

While the Prison Rape Elimination Act focuses on sexual victimization in correctional settings, staff-perpetrated sexual misconduct against women under community-based correctional supervision has received little attention. This study explored women's experiences of sexual victimization by correctional staff while on parole and used a case study approach to examine sexual victimization incidents experienced by ten women. Women described how staff's misuse of power permeated the abuse tactics. Officers used their status to gain access to women, applied individualized tactics with promises and threats, and controlled when the abuse ended. Practices and policies are needed to build safety for women under community-based correctional supervision.

The Governance of Complaints in UK Higher Education: Critically Examining ‘Remedies’ for Staff Sexual Misconduct

Complaints processes and their governance in UK higher education (HE) have received little critical scrutiny, despite their expanded role under the increasing marketisation of HE. This article draws on interviews with students who attempted to make complaints of staff sexual misconduct to their HE institution. It outlines four groups among the interviewees according to the ‘remedy’ that they obtained, describing how most interviewees could not access the services of the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education in England as they could not complete internal institutional complaints processes. The failure of most complainants to obtain remedy, and the difficult experiences of those who did, reveals the inadequacies of using an individualist, consumer-oriented model for addressing discrimination complaints in HE. The article also contributes to discussions of justice for sexual violence survivors, suggesting that community-oriented remedies are needed alongside formal administrative justice processes to address power-based sexual misconduct in institutions.

Fifty State Survey of Adult Sex Offender Registration Laws

This publication is part of a larger scholarly project and one in a series that aims to create a “legal toolkit” for addressing sexual violence in custody. This chart catalogues statutes that address adult sex offender registration requirements in all fifty states, as well as surrounding territories. This chart provides a list of all registrable offenses; indicates whether sex offender registration is required for staff sexual misconduct; details the type of information maintained in the sex offender registry, community notification and other websites; identifies limitations on residency or employment; and identifies the duration of registration.

Students’ accounts of grooming and boundary-blurring behaviours by academic staff in UK higher education

ABSTRACT Drawing on data from qualitative interviews with students who had attempted to report staff sexual misconduct to their higher education institutions in the UK, the article analyses interviewees’ experiences of ‘grooming’ and boundary-blurring behaviours from academic staff where the possibility for consent was affected by the power imbalances between staff and students. The term ‘boundary-blurring’ is used to describe behaviours that transgress (often tacit) professional boundaries, and ‘grooming’ refers to a pattern of these behaviours over time between people in positions of unequal power. This article analyses the power imbalances interviewees described that created the context for these behaviours. These were constituted by social inequalities including gender, class, and age, as well as stemming from students’ position within their institutions. The article also explores how heterosexualised normativity allows such behaviours to be minimised and invisibilised.

Discrimination in the complaints process: introducing the sector guidance to address staff sexual misconduct in UK higher education

ABSTRACT This article introduces our Sector Guidance to Address Staff Sexual Misconduct in UK Higher Education. The problem that the guidance seeks to address is that existing student complaints and staff disciplinary procedures relating to student complaints in this area fail to offer similar protections and privileges to the student complainant and the responding staff member and, as a result, students are often excluded from the process purporting to resolve their complaint. We outline the changes that would need to be made to staff disciplinary processes to follow a process more akin to civil justice than criminal justice, thus ensuring that the process accords equal rights to complainants and respondents. The article highlights points of discussion that came up in the consultation process to devise the guidance, including sharing outcomes with complainants, recording data on disclosures as well as formal reports, and proactive investigations in the absence of formal reports.

Improving Health Equity for Women Involved in the Criminal Legal System.

Improving Health Equity for Women Involved in the Criminal Legal System.

An Analysis of Statutes Criminalizing Correctional Officer Sexual Misconduct With Inmates

The 2003 Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) mandates that U.S. state correctional systems regulate and reduce staff-on-inmate sexual misconduct in state correctional facilities. As data on correctional officer sexual misconduct are limited and its legal definition varies across states, this study utilized statutory analysis to document how staff sexual misconduct is defined and how it is punished across state correctional systems. The most notable finding is that although all 50 states have statutes designed to protect incarcerated persons from being sexually victimized by correctional staff, they are far from uniform.

Making Power Visible: "Slow Activism" to Address Staff Sexual Misconduct in Higher Education.

This article examines activism to address staff-to-student sexual misconduct in higher education in the United Kingdom from our perspective as founders and members of the research and lobby organization The 1752 Group. We argue that in order to tackle staff sexual misconduct in higher education, the problem has first to be made visible. We theorize this as "slow activism" and outline the activities that we and others have been engaged in toward this end: conducting research, using complaints processes within institutions, naming the experiences of staff sexual misconduct and/or institutions and perpetrators, and carrying out discipline-led and sector-level initiatives.

Incarcerated Women's Experiences of Staff-Perpetrated Rape: Racial Disparities and Justice Gaps in Institutional Responses.

Within correctional settings, incarcerated women have disproportionately high rates of experiencing staff-perpetrated sexual victimization. In addition, only a small proportion of incarcerated women formally report their victimization experiences to correctional staff and even fewer reports are fully investigated by internal investigators and found to be substantiated. Given the multiple steps in this process, incarcerated women face several possible justice gaps in receiving preventive and intervention-focused responses from correctional staff. Racial differences among incarcerated women's experiences of these steps have not been explored. This study used a structural intersectional framework to examine racial differences in these areas: incarcerated women's experiences of staff-perpetrated rape, reporting decisions, and correctional staff's investigation decisions. With a sample of 180 incarcerated women, this study included analysis of archival data (i.e., settlement claim forms and internal investigation files) from a class action lawsuit involving incarcerated women who had experienced staff sexual misconduct. Black women represented over half of the incarcerated women who experienced staff-perpetrated rape. There were no statistical differences between Black and White women with regard to the characteristics of their victimization experiences, and they had similar rates of reporting their victimization to institutional staff. However, significant differences were found between women with regard to prison staff's responses to their reports; Black women were less likely to have their reports investigated by staff and were more likely to have their investigated reports found to be unsubstantiated. A detailed analysis of 100 specific incidents showed similar findings. Thus, while justice gaps existed for all women, gaps in institutional responses were exacerbated for Black women. Centering incarcerated Black women's experiences is pivotal for guiding efforts to transform correctional settings, to prevent and address staff-perpetrated sexual victimization, and to build safety for incarcerated women.

Processes and Practices Associated With Reporting and Investigation of Sexual Misconduct Within Prison: A Novel Case Study Constructed Through Litigation Documents

The reporting and investigation of sexual assault within prison is complex. Although prevalence data are available, there is little known about the processes and case attrition within prison that mirror the attrition in the community between reporting, investigation, and outcomes. This critical case study uses secondary data from a class action litigation on behalf of incarcerated women who experienced staff sexual misconduct in one state system. Multiple sources of data are used quantitatively and qualitatively to examine prison processes. Prison Rape Elimination Act Standards are used as a framework to interpret the analysis and illustrate potential barriers for the successful implementation through case narratives. Although secondary data analyses have limitations, these data would be difficult to obtain under other circumstances and includes perspectives of the affected women and key institutional actors. The goal of this study is to inform and improve the prison-based processes in service of reducing and/or preventing victimization.

News Briefing

UC system updates staff sexual misconduct policy Students suspended for blocking speech on campus College students report decrease in binge drinking

Staff Sexual Misconduct

This is a study of female staff sexual misconduct, drawing on reports of victims identified in large-scale national surveys of adults in prison and jails and youth in juvenile facilities. Past research has often emphasized the inmate roles and staff member vulnerabilities. More recent scholarship has moved beyond the traditional conception of sexual abuse by female correctional workers as the consequence of manipulative and predatory actions by male inmates and placed greater responsibility on the women for their actions. Although the surveys conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics over the last decade in response to the 2003 Prison Rape Elimination Act are unable to speak to the motivations of the victims or the perpetrators, they provide an assessment of the magnitude of the problem and offer extensive detail on the circumstances surrounding female staff sexual misconduct. The findings indicate that female staff members are overrepresented among perpetrators of staff sexual misconduct in prisons, jails, and juvenile facilities. The data reveal a high level of staff misconduct, involving abuse of power, trading in favors, offers of special privileges and protection, and offers of alcohol and drugs, which co-occurs with female staff sexual misconduct.

Courageous Leadership Needed to Create and Sustain Sexual Safety in Correctional Organizations

Female staff members are overrepresented among perpetrators of staff sexual misconduct in prisons, jails, and juvenile facilities. That is the basic message of Allen Beck’s thought-provoking article. This commentary provides a practitioner’s perspective of his study and highlights the need for courageous leadership in preventing and responding to female staff sexual misconduct. The author considers the implications of the study’s results for systems change and correctional organizations. While it is critical to acknowledge Dr. Beck’s conclusions and to insure accountability for any staff engaging in sexual misconduct, the author emphasizes the need to also prevent this misconduct through leadership and healthy organizational cultures. Recommendations for further research and improved correctional practice are provided by the author.

Female Staff Sexual Misconduct

This commentary looks at the recent findings of Allen Beck, PhD, on the subject of staff sexual misconduct in the field of corrections. This commentary aims to explore the importance of cultivating an in-depth understanding of the unique nature of female staff sexual misconduct and the cause and effect of policy and operational best practices implementation to ensure a sexually safe environment for both facility and agency leadership and inmates.

Legal Responses to Sexual Violence in Custody: State Criminal Laws Prohibiting Staff Sexual Abuse of Individuals under Custodial Supervision

This publication is part of a larger scholarly project and one in a series that aims to create a “legal toolkit” for addressing sexual violence in custody. This publication begins with a brief discussion of staff sexual misconduct, and then examines a variety of definitions of staff sexual misconduct as defined by federal law. Next, the publication explores, in detail, sexual misconduct as defined by state criminal laws in the United States, provides examples of current state criminal laws on staff sexual misconduct and discusses the legal implications of these statutes. Finally, this publication concludes by reviewing the policy issues that stakeholders and policymakers should consider when evaluating a state criminal law on staff sexual misconduct, and provides recommendations for strengthening state laws to enhance their effectiveness.

Public Health and Safety Consequences of Denying Access to Justice for Victims of Prison Staff Sexual Misconduct

This article juxtaposes the rationales provided by prosecutors for not prosecuting staff sexual misconduct and Congress in passing the Prison Litigation Reform Act against the public health and safety consequences of ignoring staff sexual abuse of prisoners.