Abstract
To understand how constructive responses could be encouraged and supported, research was conducted to show the reasons for female police officers' responses to sexual harassment. A survey was administered in small groups to 117 female officers from 5 law enforcement agencies in a Midwestern state. For the 106 who had experienced harassment in the last 2 years, perceiving sexual harassing behavior as a violation of organizational policy predicted seeing harassing acts as severe, which in turn predicted assertive reactions. A de-emphasis on individuality and not participating in organizational decision making were predictive of high concern about social reactions, which then predicted the use of passive responses to harassment.
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