Sexual Harassment
Criminal Defense Lawyers Specializing in Sexual Harassment Crimes
Recent Success Cases
Sexual Harassment
Result: Absolution
Court: Court of First Instance
Complainant: Private Prosecution
Accusation: Crime of sexual harassment
The Crime of Sexual Harassment
Sexual Harassment Lawyers
Sexual harassment is a crime regulated by article 184 of the Penal Code and the protected legal assets are, firstly, the sexual freedom of the victim, and secondly, the individual freedom in the victim’s environment.
This crime is different from sexual abuse and punishes those who take advantage of an employment, teaching or service provision relationship to ask sexual favors to another person in the same environment, causing the victim an objective, humiliating, intimidating and hostile situation.
For this crime to occur, there must be willful intent on the part of the accused, the person responsible must be aware of the uncomfortable situation that is causing the other person and act with willfulness in his or her conduct. There is no reckless sexual harassment.
Conduct Constituting the Crime of Harassment
Our Sexual Harassment Attorneys have extensive experience as specialists in this area.
The typical conduct of this crime occurs when the responsible party takes advantage of the labor, teaching or service rendering relationship with the other person to request requests, whether physical, verbal or non-verbal, of a sexual nature.
The crime is consummated with this simple request since it is a crime of activity and not of result, so these requests are not accepted by the victim. The result of this conduct is an uncomfortable and aggressive situation for the victim which, on many occasions, continues over time and conditions the victim to leave her workplace or change her environment.
Elements of the crime of Sexual Harassment
As Sexual Harassment Lawyers, we have a deep knowledge of the law.
For the consummation of the crime of sexual harassment it is necessary that the following circumstances are met:
- When a person solicits or makes requests of a sexual nature to another within the work, teaching or service provision environment. These requests may be physical, verbal or non-verbal.
- When, due to these sexual requests, the passive subject suffers an uncomfortable, humiliating or hostile situation. In other words, the second condition for a sexual harassment crime to be committed is based on the repercussion of the actions carried out by the active subject.
- It is necessary that the requests of a sexual nature take place in a work, teaching or service provision environment in which there is a relationship between the two parties.
- Finally, a fundamental element of this crime is the malicious nature of the harasser, who acts with willfulness in his behavior and is aware of the humiliating situation that his actions are causing on the victim. There is no reckless sexual harassment.
If these premises are met, we find ourselves before the basic type of a crime of sexual harassment, whose penalty is three to five months of imprisonment or a fine of six to ten months.
Aggravated Types of Sexual Harassment
In addition to the typical conduct, there are three main aggravated types that we will comment below: sexual harassment with prevalence, sexual harassment with express or tacit announcement of a wrong and the aggravated subtype.
Sexual harassment with prevalence
Prevalent sexual harassment occurs when, in a work, teaching or service provision environment, sexual favors are requested taking advantage of a situation of work, teaching or hierarchical superiority on the part of the harasser over the victim, and causing an intimidating or hostile situation for the victim.
The purpose of this conduct is that the victim accepts the requests due to the position of labor, functional or hierarchical superiority of the harasser.
The penalty for this type of conduct is imprisonment of five to seven months or a fine of ten to fourteen months.
Sexual harassment with the express or tacit announcement of an evil.
This aggravated type takes place when the harasser announces an evil, expressly or tacitly, against the legitimate expectations of the victim, with the objective that the victim accepts the sexual proposals.
The jurisprudence establishes that the announced evil must be credible and real, and directed directly against the passive subject and never against a third party.
As in the previous case, this aggravated conduct is punishable by five to seven months imprisonment or a fine of ten to fourteen months.
Aggravated Subtype of sexual harassment
The aggravated subtype is the most serious conduct of this crime. It occurs when the accused takes advantage of a circumstance of special vulnerability of the victim to carry out the sexual harassment. This situation of vulnerability is determined by the victim’s age, circumstances or illness.
The penalty for this aggravated subtype is five to seven months imprisonment or a fine of ten to fourteen months, and six months to one year imprisonment if any of the aggravated types that we have commented above are fulfilled.
If you need a criminal lawyer in Barcelona specialized in the resolution of any problem related to a Sexual Harassment Crime, please contact us.