sexual harassment essays uk

Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2018)

Chapter: 7 findings, conclusions, and recommendations, 7 findings, conclusions, and recommendations.

Preventing and effectively addressing sexual harassment of women in colleges and universities is a significant challenge, but we are optimistic that academic institutions can meet that challenge—if they demonstrate the will to do so. This is because the research shows what will work to prevent sexual harassment and why it will work. A systemwide change to the culture and climate in our nation’s colleges and universities can stop the pattern of harassing behavior from impacting the next generation of women entering science, engineering, and medicine.

Changing the current culture and climate requires addressing all forms of sexual harassment, not just the most egregious cases; moving beyond legal compliance; supporting targets when they come forward; improving transparency and accountability; diffusing the power structure between faculty and trainees; and revising organizational systems and structures to value diversity, inclusion, and respect. Leaders at every level within academia will be needed to initiate these changes and to establish and maintain the culture and norms. However, to succeed in making these changes, all members of our nation’s college campuses—students, faculty, staff, and administrators—will need to assume responsibility for promoting a civil and respectful environment. It is everyone’s responsibility to stop sexual harassment.

In this spirit of optimism, we offer the following compilation of the report’s findings, conclusions, and recommendations.

FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS

Chapter 2: sexual harassment research.

• Sexual harassment is a form of discrimination that consists of three types of harassing behavior: (1) gender harassment (verbal and nonverbal behaviors that convey hostility, objectification, exclusion, or second-class status about members of one gender); (2) unwanted sexual attention (unwelcome verbal or physical sexual advances, which can include assault); and (3) sexual coercion (when favorable professional or educational treatment is conditioned on sexual activity). The distinctions between the types of harassment are important, particularly because many people do not realize that gender harassment is a form of sexual harassment.
• Sexually harassing behavior can be either direct (targeted at an individual) or ambient (a general level of sexual harassment in an environment) and is harmful in both cases. It is considered illegal when it creates a hostile environment (gender harassment or unwanted sexual attention that is “severe or pervasive” enough to alter the conditions of employment, interfere with one’s work performance, or impede one’s ability to get an education) or when it is quid pro quo sexual harassment (when favorable professional or educational treatment is conditioned on sexual activity).
• There are reliable scientific methods for determining the prevalence of sexual harassment. To measure the incidence of sexual harassment, surveys should follow the best practices that have emerged from the science of sexual harassment. This includes use of the Sexual Experiences Questionnaire, the most widely used and well-validated instrument available for measuring sexual harassment; assessment of specific behaviors without requiring the respondent to label the behaviors “sexual harassment”; focus on first-hand experience or observation of behavior (rather than rumor or hearsay); and focus on the recent past (1–2 years, to avoid problems of memory decay). Relying on the number of official reports of sexual harassment made to an organization is not an accurate method for determining the prevalence.
• Some surveys underreport the incidence of sexual harassment because they have not followed standard and valid practices for survey research and sexual harassment research.
• While properly conducted surveys are the best methods for estimating the prevalence of sexual harassment, other salient aspects of sexual harassment and its consequences can be examined using other research methods , such as behavioral laboratory experiments, interviews, case studies, ethnographies, and legal research. Such studies can provide information about the presence and nature of sexually harassing behavior in an organization, how it develops and continues (and influences the organizational climate), and how it attenuates or amplifies outcomes from sexual harassment.
• Women experience sexual harassment more often than men do.
• Gender harassment (e.g., behaviors that communicate that women do not belong or do not merit respect) is by far the most common type of sexual harassment. When an environment is pervaded by gender harassment, unwanted sexual attention and sexual coercion become more likely to occur—in part because unwanted sexual attention and sexual coercion are almost never experienced by women without simultaneously experiencing gender harassment.
• Men are more likely than women to commit sexual harassment.
• Coworkers and peers more often commit sexual harassment than do superiors.
• Sexually harassing behaviors are not typically isolated incidents; rather, they are a series or pattern of sometimes escalating incidents and behaviors.
• Women of color experience more harassment (sexual, racial/ethnic, or combination of the two) than white women, white men, and men of color do. Women of color often experience sexual harassment that includes racial harassment.
• Sexual- and gender-minority people experience more sexual harassment than heterosexual women do.
• The two characteristics of environments most associated with higher rates of sexual harassment are (a) male-dominated gender ratios and leadership and (b) an organizational climate that communicates tolerance of sexual harassment (e.g., leadership that fails to take complaints seriously, fails to sanction perpetrators, or fails to protect complainants from retaliation).
• Organizational climate is, by far, the greatest predictor of the occurrence of sexual harassment, and ameliorating it can prevent people from sexually harassing others. A person more likely to engage in harassing behaviors is significantly less likely to do so in an environment that does not support harassing behaviors and/or has strong, clear, transparent consequences for these behaviors.

Chapter 3: Sexual Harassment in Academic Science, Engineering, and Medicine

• Male-dominated environment , with men in positions of power and authority.
• Organizational tolerance for sexually harassing behavior (e.g., failing to take complaints seriously, failing to sanction perpetrators, or failing to protect complainants from retaliation).
• Hierarchical and dependent relationships between faculty and their trainees (e.g., students, postdoctoral fellows, residents).
• Isolating environments (e.g., labs, field sites, and hospitals) in which faculty and trainees spend considerable time.
• Greater than 50 percent of women faculty and staff and 20–50 percent of women students encounter or experience sexually harassing conduct in academia.
• Women students in academic medicine experience more frequent gender harassment perpetrated by faculty/staff than women students in science and engineering.
• Women students/trainees encounter or experience sexual harassment perpetrated by faculty/staff and also by other students/trainees.
• Women faculty encounter or experience sexual harassment perpetrated by other faculty/staff and also by students/trainees.
• Women students, trainees, and faculty in academic medical centers experience sexual harassment by patients and patients’ families in addition to the harassment they experience from colleagues and those in leadership positions.

Chapter 4: Outcomes of Sexual Harassment

• When women experience sexual harassment in the workplace, the professional outcomes include declines in job satisfaction; withdrawal from their organization (i.e., distancing themselves from the work either physically or mentally without actually quitting, having thoughts or

intentions of leaving their job, and actually leaving their job); declines in organizational commitment (i.e., feeling disillusioned or angry with the organization); increases in job stress; and declines in productivity or performance.

• When students experience sexual harassment, the educational outcomes include declines in motivation to attend class, greater truancy, dropping classes, paying less attention in class, receiving lower grades, changing advisors, changing majors, and transferring to another educational institution, or dropping out.
• Gender harassment has adverse effects. Gender harassment that is severe or occurs frequently over a period of time can result in the same level of negative professional and psychological outcomes as isolated instances of sexual coercion. Gender harassment, often considered a “lesser,” more inconsequential form of sexual harassment, cannot be dismissed when present in an organization.
• The greater the frequency, intensity, and duration of sexually harassing behaviors, the more women report symptoms of depression, stress, and anxiety, and generally negative effects on psychological well-being.
• The more women are sexually harassed in an environment, the more they think about leaving, and end up leaving as a result of the sexual harassment.
• The more power a perpetrator has over the target, the greater the impacts and negative consequences experienced by the target.
• For women of color, preliminary research shows that when the sexual harassment occurs simultaneously with other types of harassment (i.e., racial harassment), the experiences can have more severe consequences for them.
• Sexual harassment has adverse effects that affect not only the targets of harassment but also bystanders, coworkers, workgroups, and entire organizations.
• Women cope with sexual harassment in a variety of ways, most often by ignoring or appeasing the harasser and seeking social support.
• The least common response for women is to formally report the sexually harassing experience. For many, this is due to an accurate perception that they may experience retaliation or other negative outcomes associated with their personal and professional lives.
• The dependence on advisors and mentors for career advancement.
• The system of meritocracy that does not account for the declines in productivity and morale as a result of sexual harassment.
• The “macho” culture in some fields.
• The informal communication network , in which rumors and accusations are spread within and across specialized programs and fields.
• The cumulative effect of sexual harassment is significant damage to research integrity and a costly loss of talent in academic science, engineering, and medicine. Women faculty in science, engineering, and medicine who experience sexual harassment report three common professional outcomes: stepping down from leadership opportunities to avoid the perpetrator, leaving their institution, and leaving their field altogether.

Chapter 5: Existing Legal and Policy Mechanisms for Addressing Sexual Harassment

• An overly legalistic approach to the problem of sexual harassment is likely to misjudge the true nature and scope of the problem. Sexual harassment law and policy development has focused narrowly on the sexualized and coercive forms of sexual harassment, not on the gender harassment type that research has identified as much more prevalent and at times equally harmful.
• Much of the sexual harassment that women experience and that damages women and their careers in science, engineering, and medicine does not meet the legal criteria of illegal discrimination under current law.
• Private entities, such as companies and private universities, are legally allowed to keep their internal policies and procedures—and their research on those policies and procedures—confidential, thereby limiting the research that can be done on effective policies for preventing and handling sexual harassment.
• Various legal policies, and the interpretation of such policies, enable academic institutions to maintain secrecy and/or confidentiality regarding outcomes of sexual harassment investigations, arbitration, and settlement agreements. Colleagues may also hesitate to warn one another about sexual harassment concerns in the hiring or promotion context out of fear of legal repercussions (i.e., being sued for defamation and/or discrimination). This lack of transparency in the adjudication process within organizations can cover up sexual harassment perpetrated by repeat or serial harassers. This creates additional barriers to researchers

and others studying harassment claims and outcomes, and is also a barrier to determining the effectiveness of policies and procedures.

• Title IX, Title VII, and case law reflect the inaccurate assumption that a target of sexual harassment will promptly report the harassment without worrying about retaliation. Effectively addressing sexual harassment through the law, institutional policies or procedures, or cultural change requires taking into account that targets of sexual harassment are unlikely to report harassment and often face retaliation for reporting (despite this being illegal).
• Fears of legal liability may prevent institutions from being willing to effectively evaluate training for its measurable impact on reducing harassment. Educating employees via sexual harassment training is commonly implemented as a central component of demonstrating to courts that institutions have “exercised reasonable care to prevent and correct promptly any sexually harassing behavior.” However, research has not demonstrated that such training prevents sexual harassment. Thus, if institutions evaluated their training programs, they would likely find them to be ineffective, which, in turn, could raise fears within institutions of their risk for liability because they would then knowingly not be exercising reasonable care.
• Holding individuals and institutions responsible for sexual harassment and demonstrating that sexual harassment is a serious issue requires U.S. federal funding agencies to be aware when principal investigators, co-principal investigators, and grant personnel have violated sexual harassment policies. It is unclear whether and how federal agencies will take action beyond the requirements of Title IX and Title VII to ensure that federal grants, composed of taxpayers’ dollars, are not supporting research, academic institutions, or programs in which sexual harassment is ongoing and not being addressed. Federal science agencies usually indicate (e.g., in requests for proposals or other announcements) that they have a “no-tolerance” policy for sexual harassment. In general, federal agencies rely on the grantee institutions to investigate and follow through on Title IX violations. By not assessing and addressing the role of institutions and professional organizations in enabling individual sexual harassers, federal agencies may be perpetuating the problem of sexual harassment.
• To address the effect sexual harassment has on the integrity of research, parts of the federal government and several professional societies are beginning to focus more broadly on policies about research integrity and on codes of ethics rather than on the narrow definition of research misconduct. A powerful incentive for change may be missed if sexual harassment is not considered equally important as research misconduct, in terms of its effect on the integrity of research.

Chapter 6: Changing the Culture and Climate in Higher Education

• A systemwide change to the culture and climate in higher education is required to prevent and effectively address all three forms of sexual harassment. Despite significant attention in recent years, there is no evidence to suggest that current policies, procedures, and approaches have resulted in a significant reduction in sexual harassment. It is time to consider approaches that address the systems, cultures, and climates that enable sexual harassment to perpetuate.
• Strong and effective leaders at all levels in the organization are required to make the systemwide changes to climate and culture in higher education. The leadership of the organization—at every level—plays a significant role in establishing and maintaining an organization’s culture and norms. However, leaders in academic institutions rarely have leadership training to thoughtfully address culture and climate issues, and the leadership training that exists is often of poor quality.
• Evidence-based, effective intervention strategies are available for enhancing gender diversity in hiring practices.
• Focusing evaluation and reward structures on cooperation and collegiality rather than solely on individual-level teaching and research performance metrics could have a significant impact on improving the environment in academia.
• Evidence-based, effective intervention strategies are available for raising levels of interpersonal civility and respect in workgroups and teams.
• An organization that is committed to improving organizational climate must address issues of bias in academia. Training to reduce personal bias can cause larger-scale changes in departmental behaviors in an academic setting.
• Skills-based training that centers on bystander intervention promotes a culture of support, not one of silence. By calling out negative behaviors on the spot, all members of an academic community are helping to create a culture where abusive behavior is seen as an aberration, not as the norm.
• Reducing hierarchical power structures and diffusing power more broadly among faculty and trainees can reduce the risk of sexual ha

rassment. Departments and institutions could take the following approaches for diffusing power:

• Make use of egalitarian leadership styles that recognize that people at all levels of experience and expertise have important insights to offer.
• Adopt mentoring networks or committee-based advising that allows for a diversity of potential pathways for advice, funding, support, and informal reporting of harassment.
• Develop ways the research funding can be provided to the trainee rather than just the principal investigator.
• Take on the responsibility for preserving the potential work of the research team and trainees by redistributing the funding if a principal investigator cannot continue the work because he/she has created a climate that fosters sexual harassment and guaranteeing funding to trainees if the institution or a funder pulls funding from the principal investigator because of sexual harassment.
• Orienting students, trainees, faculty, and staff, at all levels, to the academic institution’s culture and its policies and procedures for handling sexual harassment can be an important piece of establishing a climate that demonstrates sexual harassment is not tolerated and targets will be supported.
• Institutions could build systems of response that empower targets by providing alternative and less formal means of accessing support services, recording information, and reporting incidents without fear of retaliation.
• Supporting student targets also includes helping them to manage their education and training over the long term.
• Confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements isolate sexual harassment targets by limiting their ability to speak with others about their experiences and can serve to shield perpetrators who have harassed people repeatedly.
• Key components of clear anti-harassment policies are that they are quickly and easily digested (i.e., using one-page flyers or infographics and not in legally dense language) and that they clearly state that people will be held accountable for violating the policy.
• A range of progressive/escalating disciplinary consequences (such as counseling, changes in work responsibilities, reductions in pay/benefits, and suspension or dismissal) that corresponds to the severity and frequency of the misconduct has the potential of correcting behavior before it escalates and without significantly disrupting an academic program.
• In an effort to change behavior and improve the climate, it may also be appropriate for institutions to undertake some rehabilitation-focused measures, even though these may not be sanctions per se.
• For the people in an institution to understand that the institution does not tolerate sexual harassment, it must show that it does investigate and then hold perpetrators accountable in a reasonable timeframe. Institutions can anonymize the basic information and provide regular reports that convey how many reports are being investigated and what the outcomes are from the investigation.
• An approach for improving transparency and demonstrating that the institution takes sexual harassment seriously is to encourage internal review of its policies, procedures, and interventions for addressing sexual harassment, and to have interactive dialogues with members of their campus community (especially expert researchers on these topics) around ways to improve the culture and climate and change behavior.
• Cater training to specific populations; in academia this would include students, postdoctoral fellows, staff, faculty, and those in leadership.
• Attend to the institutional motivation for training , which can impact the effectiveness of the training; for instance, compliance-based approaches have limited positive impact.
• Conduct training using live qualified trainers and offer trainees specific examples of inappropriate conduct. We note that a great deal of sexual harassment training today is offered via an online mini-course or the viewing of a short video.
• Describe standards of behavior clearly and accessibly (e.g., avoiding legal and technical terms).
• To the extent that the training literature provides broad guidelines for creating impactful training that can change climate and behavior, they include the following:
• Establish standards of behavior rather than solely seek to influence attitudes and beliefs. Clear communication of behavioral expectations, and teaching of behavioral skills, is essential.
• Conduct training in adherence to best standards , including appropriate pre-training needs assessment and evaluation of its effectiveness.
• Creating a climate that prevents sexual harassment requires measuring the climate in relation to sexual harassment, diversity, and respect, and assessing progress in reducing sexual harassment.
• Efforts to incentivize systemwide changes, such as Athena SWAN, 1 are crucial to motivating organizations and departments within organizations to make the necessary changes.
• Enacting new codes of conduct and new rules related specifically to conference attendance.
• Including sexual harassment in codes of ethics and investigating reports of sexual harassment. (This is a new responsibility for professional societies, and these organizations are considering how to take into consideration the law, home institutions, due process, and careful reporting when dealing with reports of sexual harassment.)
• Requiring members to acknowledge, in writing, the professional society’s rules and codes of conduct relating to sexual harassment during conference registration and during membership sign-up and renewal.
• Supporting and designing programs that prevent harassment and provide skills to intervene when someone is being harassed.
• Strengthening statements on sexual harassment, bullying, and discrimination in professional societies’ codes of conduct, with a few defining it as research misconduct.
• Factoring in harassment-related professional misconduct into scientific award decisions.
• Professional societies have the potential to be powerful drivers of change through their capacity to help educate, train, codify, and reinforce cultural expectations for their respective scientific, engineering, and medical communities. Some professional societies have taken action to prevent and respond to sexual harassment among their membership. Although each professional society has taken a slightly different approach to addressing sexual harassment, there are some shared approaches, including the following:

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1 Athena SWAN (Scientific Women’s Academic Network). See https://www.ecu.ac.uk/equalitycharters/athena-swan/ .

• There are many promising approaches to changing the culture and climate in academia; however, further research assessing the effects and values of the following approaches is needed to identify best practices:
• Policies, procedures, trainings, and interventions, specifically how they prevent and stop sexually harassing behavior, alter perception of organizational tolerance for sexually harassing behavior, and reduce the negative consequences from reporting the incidents. This includes informal and formal reporting mechanisms, bystander intervention training, academic leadership training, sexual harassment training, interventions to improve civility, mandatory reporting requirements, and approaches to supporting and improving communication with the target.
• Mechanisms for target-led resolution options and mechanisms by which the target has a role in deciding what happens to the perpetrator, including restorative justice practices.
• Mechanisms for protecting targets from retaliation.
• Rehabilitation-focused measures for disciplining perpetrators.
• Incentive systems for encouraging leaders in higher education to address the issues of sexual harassment on campus.

RECOMMENDATIONS

RECOMMENDATION 1: Create diverse, inclusive, and respectful environments.

• Academic institutions and their leaders should take explicit steps to achieve greater gender and racial equity in hiring and promotions, and thus improve the representation of women at every level.
• Academic institutions and their leaders should take steps to foster greater cooperation, respectful work behavior, and professionalism at the faculty, staff, and student/trainee levels, and should evaluate faculty and staff on these criteria in hiring and promotion.
• Academic institutions should combine anti-harassment efforts with civility-promotion programs.
• Academic institutions should cater their training to specific populations (in academia these should include students/trainees, staff, faculty, and those in leadership) and should follow best practices in designing training programs. Training should be viewed as the means of providing the skills needed by all members of the academic community, each of whom has a role to play in building a positive organizational climate focused on safety and respect, and not simply as a method of ensuring compliance with laws.
• Academic institutions should utilize training approaches that develop skills among participants to interrupt and intervene when inappropriate behavior occurs. These training programs should be evaluated to deter

mine whether they are effective and what aspects of the training are most important to changing culture.

• Anti–sexual harassment training programs should focus on changing behavior, not on changing beliefs. Programs should focus on clearly communicating behavioral expectations, specifying consequences for failing to meet these expectations, and identifying the mechanisms to be utilized when these expectations are not met. Training programs should not be based on the avoidance of legal liability.

RECOMMENDATION 2: Address the most common form of sexual harassment: gender harassment.

Leaders in academic institutions and research and training sites should pay increased attention to and enact policies that cover gender harassment as a means of addressing the most common form of sexual harassment and of preventing other types of sexually harassing behavior.

RECOMMENDATION 3: Move beyond legal compliance to address culture and climate.

Academic institutions, research and training sites, and federal agencies should move beyond interventions or policies that represent basic legal compliance and that rely solely on formal reports made by targets. Sexual harassment needs to be addressed as a significant culture and climate issue that requires institutional leaders to engage with and listen to students and other campus community members.

RECOMMENDATION 4: Improve transparency and accountability.

• Academic institutions need to develop—and readily share—clear, accessible, and consistent policies on sexual harassment and standards of behavior. They should include a range of clearly stated, appropriate, and escalating disciplinary consequences for perpetrators found to have violated sexual harassment policy and/or law. The disciplinary actions taken should correspond to the severity and frequency of the harassment. The disciplinary actions should not be something that is often considered a benefit for faculty, such as a reduction in teaching load or time away from campus service responsibilities. Decisions regarding disciplinary actions, if indicated or required, should be made in a fair and timely way following an investigative process that is fair to all sides. 2
• Academic institutions should be as transparent as possible about how they are handling reports of sexual harassment. This requires balancing issues of confidentiality with issues of transparency. Annual reports,

2 Further detail on processes and guidance for how to fairly and appropriately investigate and adjudicate these issues are not provided because they are complex issues that were beyond the scope of this study.

that provide information on (1) how many and what type of policy violations have been reported (both informally and formally), (2) how many reports are currently under investigation, and (3) how many have been adjudicated, along with general descriptions of any disciplinary actions taken, should be shared with the entire academic community: students, trainees, faculty, administrators, staff, alumni, and funders. At the very least, the results of the investigation and any disciplinary action should be shared with the target(s) and/or the person(s) who reported the behavior.

• Academic institutions should be accountable for the climate within their organization. In particular, they should utilize climate surveys to further investigate and address systemic sexual harassment, particularly when surveys indicate specific schools or facilities have high rates of harassment or chronically fail to reduce rates of sexual harassment.
• Academic institutions should consider sexual harassment equally important as research misconduct in terms of its effect on the integrity of research. They should increase collaboration among offices that oversee the integrity of research (i.e., those that cover ethics, research misconduct, diversity, and harassment issues); centralize resources, information, and expertise; provide more resources for handling complaints and working with targets; and implement sanctions on researchers found guilty of sexual harassment.

RECOMMENDATION 5: Diffuse the hierarchical and dependent relationship between trainees and faculty.

Academic institutions should consider power-diffusion mechanisms (i.e., mentoring networks or committee-based advising and departmental funding rather than funding only from a principal investigator) to reduce the risk of sexual harassment.

RECOMMENDATION 6: Provide support for the target.

Academic institutions should convey that reporting sexual harassment is an honorable and courageous action. Regardless of a target filing a formal report, academic institutions should provide means of accessing support services (social services, health care, legal, career/professional). They should provide alternative and less formal means of recording information about the experience and reporting the experience if the target is not comfortable filing a formal report. Academic institutions should develop approaches to prevent the target from experiencing or fearing retaliation in academic settings.

RECOMMENDATION 7: Strive for strong and diverse leadership.

• College and university presidents, provosts, deans, department chairs, and program directors must make the reduction and prevention of sexual

harassment an explicit goal of their tenure. They should publicly state that the reduction and prevention of sexual harassment will be among their highest priorities, and they should engage students, faculty, and staff (and, where appropriate, the local community) in their efforts.

• Academic institutions should support and facilitate leaders at every level (university, school/college, department, lab) in developing skills in leadership, conflict resolution, mediation, negotiation, and de-escalation, and should ensure a clear understanding of policies and procedures for handling sexual harassment issues. Additionally, these skills development programs should be customized to each level of leadership.
• Leadership training programs for those in academia should include training on how to recognize and handle sexual harassment issues, and how to take explicit steps to create a culture and climate to reduce and prevent sexual harassment—and not just protect the institution against liability.

RECOMMENDATION 8: Measure progress.

Academic institutions should work with researchers to evaluate and assess their efforts to create a more diverse, inclusive, and respectful environment, and to create effective policies, procedures, and training programs. They should not rely on formal reports by targets for an understanding of sexual harassment on their campus.

• When organizations study sexual harassment, they should follow the valid methodologies established by social science research on sexual harassment and should consult subject-matter experts. Surveys that attempt to ascertain the prevalence and types of harassment experienced by individuals should adopt the following practices: ensure confidentiality, use validated behavioral instruments such as the Sexual Experiences Questionnaire, and avoid specifically using the term “sexual harassment” in any survey or questionnaire.
• Academic institutions should also conduct more wide-ranging assessments using measures in addition to campus climate surveys, for example, ethnography, focus groups, and exit interviews. These methods are especially important in smaller organizational units where surveys, which require more participants to yield meaningful data, might not be useful.
• Organizations studying sexual harassment in their environments should take into consideration the particular experiences of people of color and sexual- and gender-minority people, and they should utilize methods that allow them to disaggregate their data by race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender identity to reveal the different experiences across populations.
• The results of climate surveys should be shared publicly to encourage transparency and accountability and to demonstrate to the campus community that the institution takes the issue seriously. One option would be for academic institutions to collaborate in developing a central repository for reporting their climate data, which could also improve the ability for research to be conducted on the effectiveness of institutional approaches.
• Federal agencies and foundations should commit resources to develop a tool similar to ARC3, the Administrator-Researcher Campus Climate Collaborative, to understand and track the climate for faculty, staff, and postdoctoral fellows.

RECOMMENDATION 9: Incentivize change.

• Academic institutions should work to apply for awards from the emerging STEM Equity Achievement (SEA Change) program. 3 Federal agencies and private foundations should encourage and support academic institutions working to achieve SEA Change awards.
• Accreditation bodies should consider efforts to create diverse, inclusive, and respectful environments when evaluating institutions or departments.
• Federal agencies should incentivize efforts to reduce sexual harassment in academia by requiring evaluations of the research environment, funding research and evaluation of training for students and faculty (including bystander intervention), supporting the development and evaluation of leadership training for faculty, and funding research on effective policies and procedures.

RECOMMENDATION 10: Encourage involvement of professional societies and other organizations.

• Professional societies should accelerate their efforts to be viewed as organizations that are helping to create culture changes that reduce or prevent the occurrence of sexual harassment. They should provide support and guidance for members who have been targets of sexual harassment. They should use their influence to address sexual harassment in the scientific, medical, and engineering communities they represent and promote a professional culture of civility and respect. The efforts of the American Geophysical Union are especially exemplary and should be considered as a model for other professional societies to follow.
• Other organizations that facilitate the research and training of people in science, engineering, and medicine, such as collaborative field sites (i.e., national labs and observatories), should establish standards of behavior

3 See https://www.aaas.org/news/sea-change-program-aims-transform-diversity-efforts-stem .

and set policies, procedures, and practices similar to those recommended for academic institutions and following the examples of professional societies. They should hold people accountable for their behaviors while at their facility regardless of the person’s institutional affiliation (just as some professional societies are doing).

RECOMMENDATION 11: Initiate legislative action.

State legislatures and Congress should consider new and additional legislation with the following goals:

• Better protecting sexual harassment claimants from retaliation.
• Prohibiting confidentiality in settlement agreements that currently enable harassers to move to another institution and conceal past adjudications.
• Banning mandatory arbitration clauses for discrimination claims.
• Allowing lawsuits to be filed against alleged harassers directly (instead of or in addition to their academic employers).
• Requiring institutions receiving federal funds to publicly disclose results from campus climate surveys and/or the number of sexual harassment reports made to campuses.
• Requesting the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health devote research funds to doing a follow-up analysis on the topic of sexual harassment in science, engineering, and medicine in 3 to 5 years to determine (1) whether research has shown that the prevalence of sexual harassment has decreased, (2) whether progress has been made on implementing these recommendations, and (3) where to focus future efforts.

RECOMMENDATION 12: Address the failures to meaningfully enforce Title VII’s prohibition on sex discrimination.

• Judges, academic institutions (including faculty, staff, and leaders in academia), and administrative agencies should rely on scientific evidence about the behavior of targets and perpetrators of sexual harassment when assessing both institutional compliance with the law and the merits of individual claims.
• Federal judges should take into account demonstrated effectiveness of anti-harassment policies and practices such as trainings, and not just their existence , for use of an affirmative defense against a sexual harassment claim under Title VII.

RECOMMENDATION 13: Increase federal agency action and collaboration.

Federal agencies should do the following:

• Increase support for research and evaluation of the effectiveness of policies, procedures, and training on sexual harassment.
• Attend to sexual harassment with at least the same level of attention and resources as devoted to research misconduct. They should increase collaboration among offices that oversee the integrity of research (i.e., those that cover ethics, research misconduct, diversity, and harassment issues); centralize resources, information, and expertise; provide more resources for handling complaints and working with targets; and implement sanctions on researchers found guilty of sexual harassment.
• Require institutions to report to federal agencies when individuals on grants have been found to have violated sexual harassment policies or have been put on administrative leave related to sexual harassment, as the National Science Foundation has proposed doing. Agencies should also hold accountable the perpetrator and the institution by using a range of disciplinary actions that limit the negative effects on other grant personnel who were either the target of the harassing behavior or innocent bystanders.
• Reward and incentivize colleges and universities for implementing policies, programs, and strategies that research shows are most likely to and are succeeding in reducing and preventing sexual harassment.

RECOMMENDATION 14: Conduct necessary research.

Funders should support the following research:

• The sexual harassment experiences of women in underrepresented and/or vulnerable groups, including women of color, disabled women, immigrant women, sexual- and gender-minority women, postdoctoral trainees, and others.
• Policies, procedures, trainings, and interventions, specifically their ability to prevent and stop sexually harassing behavior, to alter perception of organizational tolerance for sexually harassing behavior, and to reduce the negative consequences from reporting the incidents. This should include research on informal and formal reporting mechanisms, bystander intervention training, academic leadership training, sexual harassment and diversity training, interventions to improve civility, mandatory reporting requirements, and approaches to supporting and improving communication with the target.
• Approaches for mitigating the negative impacts and outcomes that targets experience.
• The prevalence and nature of sexual harassment within specific fields in

science, engineering, and medicine and that follows good practices for sexual harassment surveys.

• The prevalence and nature of sexual harassment perpetrated by students on faculty.
• The amount of sexual harassment that serial harassers are responsible for.
• The prevalence and effect of ambient harassment in the academic setting.
• The connections between consensual relationships and sexual harassment.
• Psychological characteristics that increase the risk of perpetrating different forms of sexually harassing behaviors.

RECOMMENDATION 15: Make the entire academic community responsible for reducing and preventing sexual harassment.

All members of our nation’s college campuses—students, trainees, faculty, staff, and administrators—as well as members of research and training sites should assume responsibility for promoting civil and respectful education, training, and work environments, and stepping up and confronting those whose behaviors and actions create sexually harassing environments.

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Over the last few decades, research, activity, and funding has been devoted to improving the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women in the fields of science, engineering, and medicine. In recent years the diversity of those participating in these fields, particularly the participation of women, has improved and there are significantly more women entering careers and studying science, engineering, and medicine than ever before. However, as women increasingly enter these fields they face biases and barriers and it is not surprising that sexual harassment is one of these barriers.

Over thirty years the incidence of sexual harassment in different industries has held steady, yet now more women are in the workforce and in academia, and in the fields of science, engineering, and medicine (as students and faculty) and so more women are experiencing sexual harassment as they work and learn. Over the last several years, revelations of the sexual harassment experienced by women in the workplace and in academic settings have raised urgent questions about the specific impact of this discriminatory behavior on women and the extent to which it is limiting their careers.

Sexual Harassment of Women explores the influence of sexual harassment in academia on the career advancement of women in the scientific, technical, and medical workforce. This report reviews the research on the extent to which women in the fields of science, engineering, and medicine are victimized by sexual harassment and examines the existing information on the extent to which sexual harassment in academia negatively impacts the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women pursuing scientific, engineering, technical, and medical careers. It also identifies and analyzes the policies, strategies and practices that have been the most successful in preventing and addressing sexual harassment in these settings.

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Proposed sex education guidance in England goes against evidence and may well lead to harm

Associate Professor at the Health Services Management Centre, University of Birmingham

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Sophie King-Hill receives funding from ESRC and AHRC.

University of Birmingham provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation UK.

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The UK government has released new plans for relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) in primary and secondary schools in England. This would see age parameters introduced for key issues in sex education, with no education on sex at all for children under the age of nine.

A consultation on these plans has been launched. If adopted, this guidance will diminish years of progress in how young people are educated about sex and relationships – education that keeps them safe. The recommendations set out in the policy are in direct conflict with many years of research in this area of education.

The age limits in the new draft guidance set out that puberty should not be taught before year four, when pupils are aged eight and nine. Sex education, which should be in line with what children learn in science about conception and birth – the “factual description of conception in the science curriculum” – shouldn’t be taught before year five, when children are nine and ten.

Issues regarding sexual harassment shouldn’t be taught before year seven – the first year of secondary school, when children are 11 and 12. No direct references to suicide should be taught before year eight. No explicit discussion of sexual acts should take place before year nine, when children are aged 13 and 14.

Having strict parameters around the ages children can be taught specific information will restrict teachers from delivering potentially crucial education adapted to their pupils’ needs.

For instance, puberty may start any time from eight years old with some young people starting their periods at nine. Before this happens, incremental education to prepare children needs to have taken place.

The guidance states that there can be flexibility on what is taught at what age if there is a safeguarding risk to children – for instance, if pornographic material is circulating among children at a primary school.

But the problem is that children and young people may be experiencing something like this without the school knowing about it. Research with teenagers found that just 2% reported receiving an unwanted sexual image to their school.

A NSPCC survey found that one in 25 primary school children had been shown or sent a naked or semi-naked image by an adult. That’s the equivalent of one child in every class. But under this guidance, children wouldn’t learn about specifically sexual harassment like this until they are in secondary school.

A survey by the Children’s Commissioner for England found that 10% of children had seen pornography by age nine, and the average age children see pornography is age 13. This means many children will have seen footage of sexual acts before the age their school would be permitted to teach them about this.

Research has found that women who received inadequate sex education as children were more likely to have experienced childhood sexual abuse. And evidence suggests that children who have received education aimed at preventing sexual abuse may more likely to tell an adult if they experience abuse.

A great deal of research also tells us that young people are more likely to delay sex the more information that they have about it.

What’s more, there are clear conflicts between what the new draft guidance includes and what children and young people consistently say they want and need.

What young people want

I carried out research with children and young people to hear their views on sex and relationships education – research that the Department of Education wanted and welcomed, to help inform this draft guidance. The young people said they wanted more, not less, RSHE.

They stated that the education they already receive is too little, too late and that they are being taught things they already know. They want safe spaces to talk about the issues that surround them.

My findings echo a plethora of research in this area about what is needed in RSHE. Children and young people need more, better sex education to inform them and keep them safe.

The draft guidance also states that while young people should learn the law about gender reassignment, “schools should not teach about the broader concept of gender identity”. The result of this will be that young people receive less information about LGBTQ+ identities.

Again, this conflicts with what young people say they want from RSHE. Young people say that they want a more diverse RSHE education that encompasses differing identities and LGBTQ+ knowledge .

Research has found that all young people benefit from inclusive RSHE : comprehensive sex education improves the school environment for all students, making it welcoming and creating a better environment for learning.

Teaching RSHE is a challenge. It throws up moral issues that teachers may feel uncomfortable with, often as a result of our society’s perceptions about sexual development and what children should know about sex. This means that teaching staff and schools need more evidence-based training and resources on how to teach about sex and relationships, not guidance that may leave them fearful about doing or saying the wrong thing.

The new proposals conflict with many years of robust evidence in this field. In my view these guidelines are naive when considering access to the internet and current social contexts. When considering the wealth of evidence in the field they are nothing short of dangerous. This guidance poses a serious risk to the psychological and physical health and well-being of children and young people.

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Talking to your child about online sexual harassment: A guide for parents

Foreword by Dame Rachel de Souza DBE

Since March 2020, thousands of young women have been sharing their experiences of sexual harassment through the ‘Everyone’s Invited’ project. This is an online platform where girls ‑ who are still mostly in school – have described growing up in a world where harassment, including sexualised comments, slut‑shaming and the sharing of nude pictures, is part of their everyday lives. This harmful behaviour happens online and offline. I’ve seen this first‑hand during my time as a headteacher and I know how stressful and damaging it can be for children, especially girls.

Of course, boys can experience sexualised bullying too, and when they do it’s often in the form of homophobic abuse, or through pressure to be more ‘masculine’.

When I became Children’s Commissioner for England I undertook the largest ever survey of children – The Big Ask – to understand children’s lives. The findings of this survey gave me a lot of hope for this next generation, not least because of their incredible resilience. But children, especially girls, talked about their experiences of sexualised bullying and peer‑on‑peer abuse and were calling firmly for more support. Most children want that support to come from their parents or carers.

Talking to our children about this issue can be hard. Parents tell me they sometimes feel uncomfortable, not just because of the sexualised nature of the topic, but also because their children know more about technology than they do. For mums, dads and carers who grew up without smart phones, this whole world can feel bewildering.

But children want to talk to their parents and carers about this. We know this because they’ve told us. And that’s what is at the heart of this guidance.

We brought together a group of 16–21 year‑olds and asked them to tell us what they think parents should know, and what they should say to their children when talking about sexualised bullying and the pressures of growing up online. We asked them to think back to when they were a bit younger and tell us what their parents and carers did and said that was helpful…and what wasn’t.

This guidance is based on the voices of young people giving adults their tips on how to tackle this subject.

I also convened a steering group of the leading organisations working in this area and listened to their expertise. We’ll signpost to their excellent work for those who want more information, but this guide serves as a starter kit – an entry point for parents and carers who want to talk to their children but need a bit of support to understand the issues and to start a conversation.

The overriding message you’ll see from our focus group is talk early, talk often . You might be surprised how early our young people felt parents need to start the conversation. But children want an age‑appropriate conversation that evolves over time in line with their growing maturity.

My advice to parents and carers is to create the culture before the crisis . Children have told us they want their mums and dads to create a safe, judgment‑free space for them to talk about these issues. It’s better to do that before you hit a problem rather than trying to create that mood while you’re dealing with one.

It takes a lot of bravery for a child to share their experiences of abuse or harassment. Parents and carers are telling me they want to match that bravery in getting to grips with these issues. Things that might feel uncomfortable to begin with, will feel less so over time. Parents and carers need to grasp the nettle as they support their children navigating this complex part of growing up. Our children have told us it’s what they want. This guide will help you get there.

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Children writing misogynistic essays and harassing teachers seeing online influencers, union says

‘hearing sexist comments in the corridor has become commonplace’, article bookmarked.

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Pupils are submitting misogynistic essays, using coded language and hand gestures they have seen online and primary school teachers are facing sexual harassment, a union conference has been told.

The National Education Union’s (NEU) annual conference heard that sexist comments in the corridor have become “commonplace” – and some primary school teachers are having to deal with sexual harassment.

A motion passed at the conference in Harrogate said educators have noticed “a rise in the influence of misogynist influencers on social media aimed at students” which normalises violence towards women.

Delegates voted for the executive to create resources on teaching about sexism, sexual harassment and violence, and to develop resources to support students in identifying online misogyny.

Louise Regan, from Nottingham , who proposed the motion, said: “Andrew Tate’s misogynistic views have spread both globally and into our schools.”

• Two in five Britons think championing women’s equality discriminates against men
• If you thought we’d learnt a lesson from Andrew Tate, think again
• Andrew Tate: A timeline of his rise and fall

Andrew Tate, the divisive online influencer, was previously banned from various social media platforms for expressing misogynistic views and hate speech.

Empowering schools to take steps to challenge misogyny towards women is essential

Ms Regan added: “We now need actions, not words. We need all schools and settings to be tackling this.”

During the debate, Stephanie Reed, from Hackney, said teachers need to be able to respond to the “unprecedented new challenge” that staff are facing.

She said: “In my school, English teachers have been marking essays where students say that the portrayal of Curley’s wife in Of Mice And Men proves that women are dangerous and they belong in the kitchen.

“I haven’t read it for a while but I don’t remember that being my interpretation of it. I don’t think my colleagues are teaching that as an interpretation either.

“If students are saying this in essays to be handed in to their teachers, this just shows how little they understand the problems with what they’re saying.”

Ms Reed added: “At the anti-sexism fringe meeting today, I was hearing about coded language, dog whistles, even hand gestures that students are using to reference online misogynists.

“ Teachers won’t be able to recognise them without proper information and training. We need to be able to decode such messages and we need to confront them head on with our own message of equality.”

Hearing sexist comments in the corridor has become commonplace

Jennifer Bhambri-Lyte, a primary school teacher from North Somerset, warned: “The rot starts early and even the thin end of this appalling wedge is not okay so we need to begin the education now.”

During the debate, Ms Bhambri-Lyte said she had dealt with sexual harassment in her primary school –  “a bit of smacking bottoms” and some “body shaming comments”.

But she added: “There will be primary colleagues in our workplaces and in this room who have dealt with far worse.”

Caroline Gorczak, from Redbridge, told the conference: “In my nine years of teaching I’ve seen a worrying shift in some young people’s misogynistic views. Hearing sexist comments in the corridor has become commonplace.”

On Andrew Tate’s comments on women, she said: “I’m sure that you have overheard this discussed in playgrounds or in your own classrooms. This is deeply worrying.

“How have we got to a place where toxic masculinity and misogyny has come to take over the minds of young people, in particular boys and young men?

“It looks to me that we have gone backwards in this matter.”

Kevin Courtney , joint general secretary of the NEU, said: “Empowering schools to take steps to challenge misogyny towards women is essential.

“It is a necessary response to the climate of fear generated by the latest scandals about Metropolitan Police officers and the Child Q case, which have left women and girls, especially black women and girls, feeling unprotected and unsafe.

“As educators we want schools and colleges to be safe spaces, free from sexual harassment, sexual violence and misogyny – which is why we are saying ‘it’s not OK’.”

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Essay on Sexual Harassment

500 words essay on sexual harassment.

Sexual harassment refers to any form of unwelcome sexual behaviour which is offensive, humiliating and intimidating. Further, it is against the law to sexually harass anyone. Over the years, sexual harassment has taken a lot of time to be recognized as a real issue. Nonetheless, it is a start that can protect people from this harassment. The essay on sexual harassment will take you through the details.

Sexual Harassment and Its Impacts

Sexual harassment comes in many forms and not just a single one. It includes when someone tries to touch, grab or make other physical contacts with you without your consent. Further, it also includes passing comments which have a sexual meaning.

After that, it is also when someone asks you for sexual favours. Leering and staring continuously also counts as one. You are being sexually harassed when the perpetrator displays rude and offensive material so that others can see it.

Another form is making sexual gestures towards you and cracking sexual jokes or comments towards you. It is also not acceptable for someone to question you about your sexual life or insult you with sexual comments.

Further, making an obscene phone call or indecently exposing oneself also counts as sexual harassment. Sexual harassment can impact a person severely. It may stress out the victim and they may suffer from anxiety or depression.

Moreover, it can also cause them to withdraw from social situations. After that, the victim also starts to lose confidence and self-esteem. There may also be physical symptoms like headaches, sleep problems and being not able to concentrate or be productive.

What Can We Do

No one in this world deserves to go through sexual harassment, whether man or woman. We all have the right to live freely without being harassed, bullied or discriminated against. It is the reason why sexual harassment is illegal.

To begin with, the person may try talking to the offender and convey their message regarding their unwanted behaviour. Further, it is also essential to stay informed about this issue. Make sure to learn about the policies and procedures regarding sexual harassment in your workplace, school or university.

Further, try to document everything to help you remember the name of the offenders and the incidents. Similarly, make sure to save any evidence you get which will help with your complaint. For instance, keeping the text messages, emails, photos or more.

Most importantly, always try to get external information and advice from people who will help you if you decide to file a lawsuit. Likewise, never deal with it on your own and share it with someone you trust to lighten your load.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Conclusion of the Essay on Sexual Harassment

To conclude, sexual harassment is a very real issue that went unnoticed for a long period of time, but not anymore. It is essential for all of us to take measures to prevent it from happening as it damages the life of the victim severely. Thus, make sure you help out those who are suffering from sexual harassment and make the perpetrator accountable.

FAQ of Essay on Sexual Harassment

Question 1: What are the effects of sexual harassment?

Answer 1: Sexual harassment has major effects on the victim like suffering from significant psychological effects which include anxiety, depression , headaches, sleep disorders, lowered self-esteem, sexual dysfunction and more.

Question 2: How do you tell if someone is sexually harassing you?

Answer 2: It is essential to notice the signs if you feel someone is sexually harassing you. The most important sign is if you feel uncomfortable and experience any unwanted physical contact. If your ‘no’ does not have an impact and you’re being subjected to sexual jokes, you are being sexually harassed.

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• Crime, justice and law
• Justice system transparency
• Criminal Justice System statistics quarterly: December 2023
• Ministry of Justice

Criminal Justice Statistics quarterly: December 2023 (HTML)

Published 16 May 2024

Applies to England and Wales

© Crown copyright 2024

This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: [email protected] .

Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.

This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-system-statistics-quarterly-december-2023/criminal-justice-statistics-quarterly-december-2023-html

We are trialling the publication of this statistical bulletin in HTML format alongside the usual PDF version and we are seeking user feedback on the use of HTML for the publication of statistical bulletins. Please send any comments to: [email protected] .

Main Points

This is the 2023 Criminal Justice Statistics annual bulletin; it provides criminal justice statistics for the latest 12-month period, presented alongside the same 12-month period for the previous year. Where appropriate, the latest figures are compared with the corresponding period in 2019 to provide a comparison with the pre-pandemic period. The bulletin is accompanied by overview tables, tools and experimental statistics providing additional insight for users. For technical detail about sources, quality, and terminology, please refer to the accompanying technical guide to criminal justice statistics. The publication may include revisions for figures previously published where additional data has become available since those publications.

Introduction

This report presents key statistics on activity in the Criminal Justice System (CJS) for England and Wales. It provides commentary for January 2023 to December 2023 (referred to as the ‘latest year’). The contents of this bulletin will be of interest to government policy makers in the development of policy and their subsequent monitoring and evaluation. Others will be interested in the way different crimes are dealt with in the CJS, trends in sentencing outcomes and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The time series in this publication is impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic response to court processes, where more serious cases were prioritised.

Changes and revisions in this publication

Since the Q4 2022 CJSQ publication, we have undertaken work to develop and deliver significant improvements to the criminal court sentencing data. We took the decision to cancel the CJSQ 2023 Q3 to allow time for feedback and to implement any further changes to the new methodology and outputs ahead of this publication, which covers the full year 2023.

This development of criminal court sentencing data and the changes made to the processing has an overall limited impact on existing trends established in previous publications from the previous series. Users can find out more information on these changes in the technical appendix published alongside the previous report.

Additional changes made for this publication in particular include:

• Custody rate is now available in the Outcomes by Offence pivot tool, Remands pivot tool, Crown Court pivot tool and Magistrates’ court pivot tool.
• Month is now available in all annual data tools.

These changes have been made in response to increased demands from users for such data. While month is available in the tools, our headline messages will continue to focus on quarters and years.

Statistics described in Figure 1 below relate to tables Q1.1 and Q2.2 in the Overview Tables accompanying this release. Those presented in coloured boxes indicate where we are responsible for the data described. Details on remaining figures’ origin can be found in the Overview Tables.

For feedback related to the content of this publication, please contact us at [email protected]

Statistician’s comment

Prosecutions and convictions continued to increase in 2023, with prosecutions for indictable offences reaching a similar volume seen in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic. Theft offences presented the largest increase, driven by theft from shops. Sexual offence prosecutions rose for the fifth consecutive year, primarily driven by adult rape and sexual assault.

The custody rate for indictable offences increased slightly to 33.5% in the latest year and the average custodial sentence length rose for both indictable and all offences.

Figure 1: Flow through the Criminal Justice System, 2023, England and Wales [footnote 1]

1. Overview of the Criminal Justice System

1.46 million individuals were dealt with by the Criminal Justice System (CJS) in 2023

The number of individuals [footnote 2] formally dealt with by the CJS [footnote 3] in England and Wales increased by 6% in the latest year, although this figure is 6% below the level seen in 2019.

Out of court disposals continued to decrease, down 2% in the latest year and 4% lower than in 2019. The number of defendants prosecuted increased by 8% in the latest year and a 7% increase was also seen in convictions (see the Prosecutions and Convictions chapter). Prosecutions, convictions and sentencing in 2020 and 2021 were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic response, where more serious offences were prioritised, and trends in the years following this are likely to partly reflect the recovery of court processes.

In the latest year, prosecutions increased by 6% for summary offences and 15% for indictable offences. Convictions increased by 6% for summary offences and 12% for indictable offences – indictable cases typically take longer in the courts, and this may partly explain the lower increase in convictions (compared to prosecutions). Police recorded (notifiable) crime [footnote 4] [footnote 5] [footnote 6] (including fraud) was 6.22 million in the latest year, a decrease of 0.1% from the previous year, but remains 10% higher than the level of five years ago. The number of recorded crimes (excluding fraud) [footnote 7] decreased by 0.5%, however this is 8% higher than in 2021.

2. Out of Court Disposals

Out of court disposals (OOCDs) presented an overall decrease in 2023

The total number of OOCDs issued decreased by 2% in the latest year. Despite a decrease in most categories, there was a 3% increase in community resolutions.

Out of court disposals (OOCDs) are sanctions used by the police to address offences without the need to be dealt with at court. There were 195,000 OOCDs in 2023, which represented an overall decrease of 2% when compared to the previous year. Despite this, there was an increase of 3% in community resolutions [footnote 8] , with over 141,000 issued. This represents 73% of the total number of OOCDs. Over the last five years, community resolutions have increased by 41%. There was a collective decrease of 9,000 across all other OOCDs when compared to 2022. Cannabis/khat warnings and penalty notices for disorder (PNDs) decreased by 48% and 28%, respectively, while cautions decreased by 9%.

There were 7,200 PNDs in 2023, which reflected a decrease of 28% compared to the previous year. 45% of the total PNDs issued were for offenders being drunk and disorderly, and 33% for possession of cannabis. Both offences added up to over 5,600 PNDs. Causing harassment, alarm, or distress, was the next highest offence, representing 10% of PNDs, with 690 issued.

44,200 offenders received a simple or conditional caution [footnote 9] , representing an overall decrease of 9% when compared to the previous year. While most offence groups decreased in 2023, the largest drivers in the reduction of cautions issued were violence against the person (-26%) and drug offences (-8%). The only offence group to increase was theft offences, which was 10% higher than 2022. Overall cautioning rates [footnote 10] decreased over 1 percentage point, to 9% overall. Cautioning rates for drug offences and criminal damage and arson were the highest, with 19% and 16%, respectively.

3. Prosecutions and Convictions

In 2023, prosecutions and convictions increased by 8% and 7%, respectively, compared to 2022

Prosecutions for indictable offences increased to a similar volume as in 2019, driven by increases in volumes of theft (up 29%) and violence against the person (up 17%) offences.

In 2023, there were 1.26 million defendants proceeded against at magistrates’ courts, 8% higher than in the previous year. The increase in the latest year included a 15% increase in prosecutions for indictable offences. Similarly, convictions saw a 7% increase in the latest year, driven by a 12% increase in indictable offences. For summary offences, both prosecutions and convictions increased by 6% when compared to 2022. Despite this, overall prosecutions and convictions remain 7% lower than pre-pandemic levels of 2019.

Prosecution volumes for indictable offences were similar to those recorded in 2019. In the latest year, increases were seen across all offence groups, with the largest proportional increase seen for theft offences (up 29%) and sexual offences (up 23%). Increases across theft offences can be partly explained by theft from shops offences, where prosecutions increased 37% in 2023. Sexual offence prosecutions increased for the fifth consecutive year since 2018.

In 2023, there were 1.12 million offenders convicted: 7% higher than in the previous year, but 7% lower than 2019. Trends in indictable convictions tend to lag prosecutions due to the way the two metrics are counted in the data and the time taken between completing proceedings in the magistrates’ court (counted as prosecutions) and cases completing at all courts (convictions) [footnote 11] , however, indictable convictions also increased, by 12% in the latest year. Again, the largest proportional increase was seen among theft offences (up 28%), followed by sexual offences. Convictions for sexual offences increased by 18% in the latest year, and by 40% when compared to the 2019. In 2023, Convictions for rape offences increased by 31% when compared to 2022, and by 58% when compared to 2019.

The proportion of defendants remanded in custody at Crown Court increased

In the latest year, 52% of defendants were remanded in custody at Crown Court, up from 51% in 2022.

In 2023, 1.26 million defendants were directed to appear at magistrates’ courts by the police or other prosecuting authorities. The proportion of defendants where a remand decision was not applicable (NA) or unknown prior to appearing at magistrates’ court remained consistent at 82% since 2022. The proportion arrested and bailed by police decreased from 10% in 2022 to 9%, and the proportion of arrested and held in custody by police increased from 8% in 2022 to 9% in 2023.

At magistrates’ court [footnote 12] , the proportion of defendants granted bail in 2023 remained consistent at 13%. The proportion remanded in custody increased from 4% in 2022 to 5% in 2023, and the proportion where a remand decision was not applicable or unknown remained at 83%. At Crown Court the proportion of defendants remanded in custody increased from 51% in 2022 to 52% in 2023, with a corresponding decrease in the proportion bailed; this trend was seen across most offence types.

Defendants are more often remanded in custody for indictable offences than summary offences, so the proportion remanded in custody at Crown Court is higher than at magistrates’ courts. In 2023, of the defendants remanded in custody at magistrates’ courts, 10% were sentenced to immediate custody; a further 72% were sent for trial or sentencing at Crown Court. Of those remanded in custody at Crown Court, 71% were sentenced to immediate custody. At all courts, 26% of defendants that were sentenced after being remanded in custody received a non-custodial sentence.

5. Sentencing

The average custodial sentence length (ACSL) for all indictable offences increased from 23.0 months in 2022 to 23.3 months in 2023

Over the last 10 years, the ACSL for indictable offences increased 5.3 months, from 18.0 months in 2013 to 23.3 months in 2023.

There were 1.11 million offenders sentenced in 2023, a 6% increase from 1.05 million in the previous year. However, this is down 7% on the levels observed in 2019. Sentences for indictable only offences presented the highest percentage increase among offence types, rising 14% in the latest year to 11,500. In 2023, 80% of offenders were sentenced to a fine, the same proportion observed in 2022. The largest contribution was from summary motoring offences, which accounted for 72% of all fines.

The custody rate for indictable offences [footnote 13] rose between 2013 and 2018 and fluctuated a little since then, rising further in each of the latest two years, including a 0.8pp increase in the latest year to 33.5%. The ACSL [footnote 14] for indictable offences has demonstrated a relatively consistent increase over the last 10 years, increasing 5.3 months from 18.0 months in 2013 to 23.3 months in 2023.

The ACSL for all offence types was 20.9 months in the latest year, up 0.6 months from the year prior. The largest increase was for fraud offences, up from 19.7 months in 2022 to 22.4 months in the latest year. There were also increases in the ACSL for violence against the person offences (up 1.2 months), sexual offences [footnote 15] (up 0.9 months), drug offences (up 1.5 months), possession of weapons (up 0.5 months) and miscellaneous crimes against society (up 0.7 months). The largest decreases in ACSL were for robbery (down 2.0 months), criminal damage and arson (down 2.0 months) and theft offences (down 1.9 months). Smaller decreases were observed for public order offences, summary non-motoring and summary motoring offences.

6. Motoring

The number of prosecutions for motoring offences increased by 6% from 694,000 in 2022 to 733,000 in 2023, 4% higher than the level seen pre-pandemic in 2019. The increase in motoring offences prosecutions was driven, in part, by an increase in vehicle registration and excise license offences, vehicle insurance offences, and using or causing others to use a handheld mobile phone whilst driving. It is partially offset by reductions in speed limit offences and failing to supply information as to the identity of driver when required. Vehicle insurance offences, vehicle registration and excise licence offences, and speed limit offences [footnote 16] remained the most common motoring offences, collectively accounting for 65% of all motoring prosecutions in 2023 (see Figure 7 [footnote 17] ).

Prosecutions for motoring offences which caused death increased by 31% in the latest year, from 357 in 2022 to 467 in 2023. The custody rate for these offences fluctuated between 55% and 67% over the last 5 years and was 65% in 2023.

Convictions increased by 5% in the latest year, from 641,000 in 2022 to 673,000 in 2023, with sentencing following the same trend. 95% of sentences for motoring offences were dealt with by a fine in 2023. The average fine for motoring offences decreased from £323 in 2022 to £311 in 2023 [footnote 18] . The overall custody rate was 1%, with an average custodial sentence length (ACSL) of 10.4 months, which is an increase of 1.9 months compared to 2022. The number of sentenced offenders directly disqualified for motoring offences decreased by 5% in the latest year, from 77,600 in 2022 to 73,700 2023. In addition, 40,600 offenders were disqualified by the penalty points system, a decrease of 9% compared to 2022. A further 367,800 offenders received points on their licence without a disqualification; a 7% decrease compared to 2022.

Further information

Accompanying files.

As well as this bulletin, the following products are published as part of this release:

A technical guide providing further information on how the data is collected and processed, as well as information on the revisions policy and legislation relevant to sentencing trends and background on CJS.

A user guide listing all products alongside this release; this allows easy navigation of all files accompanying this release.

A set of overview tables covering each section of this bulletin.

A set of interactive data tools and CSV files underpinning all data tools.

An infographic showing visualisations of key messages.

A machine-readable offence group classification document outlining offence groupings.

Accredited official statistics status

National Statistics are accredited official statistics that meet the highest standards of trustworthiness, quality and public value. These accredited official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in May 2020 [footnote 19] . They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled as accredited official statistics. It is the Ministry of Justice’s responsibility to maintain compliance with the standards expected for accredited official statistics. If we become concerned about whether these statistics are still meeting the appropriate standards, we will discuss any concerns with the Authority promptly. Accredited official statistics status can be removed at any point when the highest standards are not maintained and reinstated when standards are restored.

Future publications

Our statisticians regularly review the content of publications. Development of new and improved statistical outputs is dependent on reallocating existing resources. As part of our continual review and prioritisation, we welcome user feedback on existing outputs including content, breadth, frequency, and methodology and in particular on the specific issues identified in the introduction. Please send any comments you have on this publication.

Press enquiries should be directed to the Ministry of Justice press office:

Tel: 020 3334 3536

URL: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/media-enquiries

Other enquiries about these statistics should be directed to Criminal Courts & Sentencing Data and Statistics team in the Data and Analysis unit of the Ministry of Justice:

Email: [email protected]

Next update : August 2024

URL : https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/criminal-justice-statistics

© Crown copyright

Produced by the Ministry of Justice

Alternative formats are available on request from [email protected]

Further information on police recorded crime can be found at the following link. Figures provided are derived from table A4a . Further information on charges can be found at the following link. Figures provided are derived from the ‘Outcomes open data’ for the relevant time.  ↩

An individual (includes companies) can be counted more than once in a year if dealt with by the CJS on multiple separate occasions.  ↩

The number of individuals formally dealt with by the CJS is the sum of all defendants prosecuted at magistrates’ court plus all individuals issued an out of court disposal (including cautions, Penalty Notice for Disorder, cannabis/khat warning and community resolutions).  ↩

Further information on police recorded crime can be found at the following link. Figures provided are derived from table A4a .  ↩

The term ‘notifiable’ covers offences that are notified to the Home Office, and they are collectively known as ‘recorded crime’. Notifiable offences include all indictable and triable-either-way offences (excluding section 6 of the Bail Act 1976), together with certain closely associated summary offences. Police recorded crime statistics cover notifiable offences.  ↩

Following the implementation of a new IT system, Greater Manchester Police were unable to supply outcomes data from July 2019 to March 2020, so there will be missing data over this period. Devon & Cornwall were unable to supply outcomes data from October 2022 to June 2023. Devon & Cornwall is excluded from charges and recorded crime figures in tables Q1.1, Q1.2, Q1.3 and Q1.4, so comparison can be made between the years. In table A1.2, both Forces have been excluded where comparisons include these periods.  ↩

Further information on charges can be found at the following link, Figures provided are derived from the ‘Outcomes open data’ for the relevant time.  ↩

Some police forces have moved to reduce the types of out of court disposals used for adult offenders. In these areas, the only out of court disposals used are community resolutions and conditional cautions. Cannabis/Khat warnings will not be used. Visit Crime outcomes in England and Wales 2022 to 2023 for further information.  ↩

Cautions are presented on a principal offence and principal caution basis, where only the most serious caution received is reported. See the technical guide for more information. The figures provided have been drawn from an extract of the Police National Computer (PNC) data held by the Department.  ↩

The cautioning rate is calculated as the proportion of offenders who were either cautioned or convicted (excluding convictions for motoring offences) that were given a caution.  ↩

It is not advised to use these figures to calculate conviction rate as a result of this. Offenders who are prosecuted for an offence may be convicted of a less serious offence in a different offence group. Crown Court cases are not necessarily concluded in the same year as the defendant was sent for trial.  ↩

The not applicable and unknown category at magistrates’ court will include cases that are dealt with outside of court or dealt with in one court sitting such as Single Justice Procedure cases, where no remand status is applicable. Unknown remand status accounts for a low volume of this category.  ↩

Indictable only offences are the most serious and must be tried at the Crown Court; summary offences are the least serious and must be tried at magistrates’ courts; and triable-either-way offences are of intermediate severity and may be tried at either court based on the circumstances of the case. Indictable only and triable-either-way offences are often referred to collectively as ‘Indictable’. See accompanying technical guide for further details.  ↩

Average custodial sentence length excludes life and indeterminate sentences. Custodial sentences with amount of 60 years and over are assumed to be errors and are excluded from the calculation.  ↩

We advise caution when comparing ACSL for sexual offences prior to 2017. See technical appendix for further details.  ↩

The Home Office publishes data in relation to motoring offences including fixed penalty notices (FPNs) for speeding in Police powers and procedures England and Wales statistics. FPNs are out of court disposals where the speeding offence is not serious enough to warrant a criminal court proceeding and where the offender does not contest being issued with the FPN.  ↩

Other motoring offences include: Causing danger by interfering with a vehicle, road or traffic equipment, Using or causing others to use a mobile phone whilst driving, Careless driving offences, Failing to stop or provide information after accident, Theft of a motor vehicle/aggravated vehicle taking, Work record and employment offences, Fraud, forgery etc. associated with vehicle or driver records, Defective vehicle parts, Vehicle test offences, Miscellaneous (other) motoring offences, Causing death by dangerous driving and Causing injury by dangerous driving.  ↩

Average fine calculation excludes companies, public bodies, etc.  ↩

Office for Statistics Regulation: Proven re-offending and criminal justice system statistics   ↩

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