Bystander Intervention during Public Harassment: Exploring Incidence, Influencing Factors and Impact

• In Event: Sexual Violence in Various contexts

Abstract

Preventing criminal behavior and social rule violations through bystander intervention has gained considerable attention in the literature in the past decade. Especially during public harassment (PH), also defined as a range of intrusive and unwanted sexual and non-sexual behaviors in the public space (Fileborn & O’Neill, 2021), encouraging bystander intervention seems appropriate and valuable. In this context, bystanders are more likely to be present while an incident of harassment is taking place, enabling them to intervene more directly (e.g., confronting the perpetrator or supporting the victim) not just after, but also during the fact. Research on bystander intervention during PH is scarce, however, resulting in a knowledge gap regarding not only its occurrence, but also the influence of key factors that may facilitate or inhibit bystander intervention during PH. Previous studies that have discussed those topics mostly focused on other contexts (e.g., workplace sexual harassment or domestic violence), were mainly conducted in the US, and primarily relied on student samples. In the present study, we seek to address these gaps by examining bystander intervention experiences among Belgians living in various cities across the country. Data were collected from March to June 2023 and were obtained through the digital ‘Safer Cities’ platform (established by the NGO Plan International), where individuals could report incidents of harassment they experienced in urban public areas. In total, 1075 reports were collected, of which 560 included information about bystander intervention. Specifically, we examine the incidence of (different forms of) bystander intervention during PH, explore the influence of several individual and situational variables on bystander intervention and discuss the impact of bystander intervention on the experienced consequences of the PH incident. Limitations of this study as well as recommendations for future research will also be discussed.

Authors

• Thijs Hauspie, Institute for International Research on Criminal Policy (IRCP), Department of Criminology, Criminal Law and Social Law, Ghent University

• Janneke M. Schokkenbroek, imec-mict, Department of Communication Sciences & IRCP, Department of Criminology, Criminal Law & Social Law, Ghent University

• Koen Ponnet, imec-mict, Department of Communication Sciences, Ghent University

• Wim Hardyns, Ghent University