Sexual Harassment Investigations
Sexual Harassment Investigations
Sexual harassment investigations are utilized to uncover inappropriate activity in the workplace, school and in other organizations. An experienced Private Investigator can handle a wide variety of sexual harassment cases and help the victims to gather and maintain all of the evidence that is necessary to file criminal charges against the perpetrator or seek retribution by any legal means necessary.
Sexual harassment is defined as bullying or coercion of a sexual nature, or the unwelcome or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favours. In most modern legal contexts sexual harassment is illegal. In the workplace, sexual harassment can be considered illegal when it is so frequent and/or severe that it creates a hostile or offensive work environment or when it results in an adverse employment decision (such as the victim being fired or demoted, or when the victim decides to quit the job). Harassment may include; continual propositioning, innuendo, coercion, exposure to explicit images or video, any form of stalking, posting, intercepting of communications, threats or actual physical contact geared towards promoting a charged sexual environment.
In some cases sexual intimidation and pressure can be a civil issue resulting in a private lawsuit being brought against the perpetrator by the victim or victims. In other more severe cases harassment can be a criminal offence, especially when physical contact has occurred or when a threat is made.
The most common environment for sexual harassment to occur is generally the workplace. Employees are sometimes threatened, constantly propositioned or are simply bombarded with sexually explicit language, images, behaviours and even sometimes in rare cases, physical contact. Workplace harassment is generally used to get employees to comply to unwanted sexual advances in return for favours such as promotions, raises in pay, extended vacation time, etc. When sexual advances are rebuffed the harassment can be used in retaliation to punish or alienate an employee to the point that they are forced to quit their job.
There are a lot of complex legal issues involved in workplace sexual harassment. These issues should always be handled by an expert Private Investigator who is familiar with the laws and can use professional techniques to uncover and document the evidence that will enable their client to pursue a successful civil lawsuit and/or bring criminal charges against the guilty party.
Private Investigators have many tactics that they can utilize to document instances of sexual harassment in any environment such as, the use of hidden cameras and microphones that allow the investigator to listen-in and view the harassment first hand. Witnesses can be interviewed and statements can be collected to provide corroboration that the harassment did actually occur.
Once the evidence is collected the victim can then decide the best course of action, whether it be to proceed with the filing of a civil lawsuit or contacting local law enforcement about any criminal actions that were involved during the harassment complaint.
