KWDI Korean Women’s Development Institute

Research on measures to prevent campus sexual harrassment and sexual violence and strengthen victim protection

 

Mijeong Lee
Mi-Hye Chang
Soo-yeon Jung
Eun-Young Heo

Campus sexual harrassment and sexual violence is an act that violates the individual's human rights and the right to learn. This research examines the problems points in treating damage and settling grievances resulting from campus sexual harrassment and sexual violence, and intends to find ways in which the protection of victims can be strengthened. Because we consider that improving the awareness of people inside the university is an important point in order to prevent sexual harrassment and sexual violence, we intend to examine measures for strengthening prevention education. This research collected and utilized data reported to the Ministry of Gender Equality & Family on sexual harrassment prevention education, and also collected the opinions of people in charge of settling grievances about sexual harassment and sexual violence.

Educational institutions are included in The Framework Act on Gender Equality, Etc., which presents the basis for the prevention of sexual harrassment in universities and arranges an official window for counseling for sexual harrassment and handling grievances. However, the rate at which victims of campus sexual harrassment and sexual violence report incidents is extremely low. That is because they fear that they can be victimized a second time if they point out the problem of a lack of trustworthiness in the process and result. Among campus sexual harrassment and sexual violence incidents, the most frequent type is between students, but the reality is that access to prevention education is difficult.

After an incident report is received at the campus's official window, there are many cases in which the perpetrator and the victim are not separated, even though it is necessary, and there are also cases in which, during the course of handling the incident, the contents of the victimization are made known to others, and the victim is re-victimized. In comparison to the complexity of the incidents of campus sexual harrassment and sexual violence, the expertise of grievance counseling organizations and investigative committees is insufficient. The people in charge at grievance counseling organizations interview all the parties (the victim, the person who reported the incident, and the person who was reported) while also offering counseling to the victim. In this situation, it is hard for the person in charge to maintain a neutral attitude. When we look at the present situation of campus sexual harrassment prevention education, there is a big gap among universities.

Policy recommendations for strengthening campus sexual harrassment and sexual violence prevention education and protecting victims are as follows. First, the Ministry of Education, which handles university education overall, should amend the Higher Education Act and the Framework Act on Education while simultaneously developing detailed projects, and universities' efforts to prevent sexual harrassment should be reflected in evaluations. Second, an inspection and scoring system for violence prevention education that is specialized for universities has to be developed. In addition, the development of a method of violence prevention education that considers the diversity of university community members is needed. Third, the establishment of a nationwide university grievance organization support center that offers consulting about campus grievance counseling organizations is needed, and in order to guarantee the expertise of the people in charge of grievance organizations, it should be an obligation to designate a full-time staff who has this fall under his or her duties. Improving awareness about sexual harrassment and sexual violence among the chief administrators in universities is also an important problem. Fourth, support for victims' medical treatment, legal support, counseling, and psychological healing must also be substantially achieved. Fifth, the expertise and competence of members participating on investigative committees has to be strengthened. Sixth, support has to be strengthened for autonomous activities that aim to implement a culture of gender equality on campus, and campus sexual harrassment and sexual violence has to be prevented.