The Effect of a Hierarchy in Workplace Sexual Violence

Abstract

Center of Social Science Research Student Paper Award Winners (2018) Sexual Assault is the most unreported act of violence in the United States (Holland, 2014). Both sexual harassment and sexual assault violence by men against women can happen in any setting, especially that of a workplace. Assault in the workplace will go unreported for several reasons, like fear of the humiliating institutional procedures that follow a sexual assault report, the harassment endured following the attack and the possibility of getting fired from their workplace (Alexander, 1994. Schneider, 1991. Petrocelli, 1998). In this review, it is evident that a hierarchy in the workplace is a major precursor to a sexual assault incident. It is also clear, despite limitations in the reviews, that there is a positive correlation between sexual assault and depressive symptoms.