Difference Between Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault

There are laws to protect you against sexual harassment and defend your rights as a victim after sexual assault. While these crimes are very similar, they are not the same. The law defines them differently and provides different legal measures to address each. 

What Is Sexual Harassment?

Sexual harassment is defined as any unwanted sexual attention, such as sexual innuendos, jokes of a sexual nature, inappropriate comments on your body or the way you look, inappropriate emails, texts, and/or pictures that could be openly or overtly construed as sexual in nature, and/or expecting sexual favors to obtain a more favorable job or position at work. It doesn’t often include sexual touching, but that depends on individual state and county guidelines and/or individual company’s sexual harassment policies.

What Is Sexual Assault?

Sexual assault is any and all unwanted touch that is sexual in nature. It could include patting, intentional touching, brushing up against, groping, grabbing, squeezing, and/or rape. Repeated unwanted touching of personal body parts is actually several counts of sexual assault. Demanding that you watch sexual acts and be involved even as a bystander counts as a form of sexual assault. If nothing is done to stop the perpetrator after the first or second time an assault action is committed, the perpetrator may escalate. 

If you are responsible for holding someone down while an assault occurs, you are as guilty as the perpetrator who commits the rape and/or assault. Even if the only thing you did was hold the victim down, it’s still participating in a violent sexual act against another person. As a victim, you can, and should, name anyone else who was involved in the crime against you. 

There are varying levels of sexual assault, as well as varying levels of rape. Police officers investigating your case assign the charges of assault and rape according to the severity and level of harm you have experienced. Your lawyer defending your rights under the law uses the charges filed by the police against your assailant to determine what you are entitled to as compensation as a victim.

What to Do About Sexual Harassment

You are supposed to tell the offending party to stop doing what they are doing because it makes you uncomfortable and you are not okay with it. If the person doesn’t stop, you need to report them. Incidents at work should be reported to managers. If the managers are the ones harassing you, report it to Human Resources, and HR should handle it from there. If HR can’t make it stop, file a complaint with the police. When the sexual harassment occurs outside of work, such as an incident in your apartment building or by someone you see in a grocery store regularly, definitely file a police complaint.

What to Do About Sexual Assault

If you are able to move and can get help, go to your nearest emergency room. Don’t worry about calling the police as they will show up when the emergency room calls them. Agree to a rape kit if you were penetrated in any way, shape, or form. You will have to surrender all clothing you were wearing in connection to the assault so that the police can find and arrest your attacker. 

The police will ask you many questions in order to complete a report. They will collect as much evidence as possible to build their case. The hospital will help treat your physical wounds, but you may need a lot of psychological help. Your body and mind have been through a traumatic event, and you need to seek different kinds of medical help to heal. As you begin this journey, hire a sexual assault attorney to defend and protect your rights as a victim of a very violent crime. 

How Long Does It Take for These Things to Sort Out?

Harassment cases do not last as long as assault cases. You may see a conclusion to a harassment case in about a few months. Assault cases, depending on how quickly the police find and arrest your attacker(s), may take a year to three years to draw to a close. None of these things are ever easy, but you can get through them, and it will get better. Rely on people you trust, like your lawyer, to heal.