Harassment

Harassment refers to a wide spectrum of offensive behavior. When the term is used in a legal sense it refers to behaviors that are found threatening or disturbing, and beyond those that are sanctioned by society. Sexual harassment refers to persistent and unwanted sexual advances, typically in the workplace, where the consequences of refusing are potentially very disadvantageous to the victim.

 

• 1Harassment
  • 1.1History
  • 1.2Categories
  • 1.3Types of harassments
  • 1.4Discussion forum
  • 1.5Links
• 2Sexual harassment
• 3Job Discrimination
• 4Age discrimination
• 5Equal Opportunity

[top]History

United States

In 1964, the United States Congress passed Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, , prohibiting discrimination at work on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin and sex. This later became the legal basis for early harassment law. The practice of developing workplace guidelines prohibiting harassment was pioneered in 1969, when the U.S. Department of Defense drafted a Human Goals Charter, establishing a policy of equal respect for both sexes. In Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson, 477 U.S. 57 (1986): the U.S. Supreme Court recognized harassment suits against employers for promoting a sexually hostile work environment. In 2006, U.S.A. President George W. Bush signed a law which prohibited the transmission of annoying messages over the Internet (aka spamming) without disclosing the sender's true identity.

Canada
In 1984, the Canadian Human Rights Act prohibited sexual harassment in workplaces under federal jurisdiction.

United Kingdom
In the UK there are a number of laws protecting people from harassment including the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, and the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.

[top]Categories

Broad categories of harassment often recognized in law include:

• Legal harassment - Legal actions against an individual or a group, for example SLAPP suits
• Sexual harassment (with a much stricter definition in the workplace)
• Psychological harassment - repetitive unprovoked intrusions or interruptions
• Group psychological harassment
• Hate speech - comments proveably false or irrelevant which express or encourage hate towards a particular group

[top]Types of harassments

There are a number of harassments that fall into this category.

• Bullying
  Harassment that can occur on the playground, school, in the workforce or any other place. Usually physical and psychological harassing behavior perpetrated against an individual, by one or more persons.
• Psychological harassment
  This is humiliating or abusive behavior that lowers a person’s self-esteem or causes them torment. This can take the form of verbal comments, actions or gestures. Falling into this category is workplace mobbing. Community Based Harassment - stalking by a group against an individual using repeated distractions that the individual is sensitized to, such as clicking an ink pen. See the following website: CATCH
• Racial harassment
  The targeting of an individual because of their race or ethnicity. The harassment's include words, deeds, and actions, that are specifically designed to make the target feel degraded due to their race of origin or ethnicity.
• Religious harassment
  Verbal, psychological or physical harassment's used against targets because they choose to practice a specific religion. Religious harassment can also include forced and involuntary conversions.
• Sexual harassment
  Harassment that can happen anywhere but is most common in the workplace, and schools. It involves unwanted and unwelcome, words, deeds, actions, gestures, symbols, or behaviors of a sexual nature that make the target feel uncomfortable. Gender and sexual orientation harassment fall into this family.
• Stalking
  The unauthorized following and surveillance of an individual, to the extent that the person's privacy is unacceptably intruded upon, and the victim fears for their safety.
• Mobbing
  Violence committed directly or indirectly by a loosely affiliated and organized group of individuals to punish or even execute a person for some alleged offense without a lawful trial. The 'offense' can range from a serious crime like murder or simple expression of ethnic, cultural, or religious attitudes. The issue of the victim's actual guilt or innocence is often irrelevant to the mob, since the mob relies on contentions that are unverifiable, unsubstantiated, or completely fabricated.
• Hazing
  To persecute, harass, or torture in a deliberate, calculated, planned, manner. Typically the targeted individual is a subordinate, for example, a fraternity pledge, a first-year military cadet, or somebody who is considered 'inferior' or an 'outsider'. Hazing is illegal in many instances.
• Police Harassment
  Unfair treatment conducted by law officials including but not limited to excessive force,profiling, threats, coercion, and racial, ethnic, religious, gender/sexual, age, or other forms of discrimination.

[top]Discussion forum

Latest threads from the forum Job Discrimination & Harassment

Discrimination and harassment in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, gender, disability, etc.

 

[top]Links

Consult a Lawyer - Click Here to Present Your Case Now!

MDCR - For Victims of Unlawful Discrimination - The Michigan Civil Rights Commission was established to identify and eliminate unlawful discrimination.




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