**6. Conclusion**

Sexual harassment is not a contemporaneous phenomenon, exclusive of a given society. It does not depend of social and moral order, or even gender-related issues. It is generally seen as a type of sex crime, and not as an incestuous relationship.

However, cultural understanding of the way we deal with the attitudes involving sexual harassment can be changed.

We emphasize that our understanding of sexual harassment encompasses all relationships that involve power. This power is linked to a function given by an institution, and the person that accepted to be harassed was under pressure. Therefore, his/ her acceptance cannot be considered valid.

Sex relationships may be considered a special type of social relationship, one that is marked by respect to the other, and not on acting on incestuous impulses or perverse, polymorphous fantasies (child sexuality). Society imposes rules related to these issues.

Sexual perversion consequent to the abuse of power (sexual relationships between doctors and patients, teachers and students, bosses and employees, priests and churchgoers) should be considered an equivalent of incest, which we call polymorphous incest. It is clearly sexual abuse, because consent is not valid, because the harasser is only acting on Oedipal or pre-Oedipal fantasies. It is a socially illicit act, because it perverts professional function. It is abuse of power in an asymmetric relationship. It is a violent act, from an institutional viewpoint, because the individual takes advantage of preexisting professional trust to transform the professional relationship in another type of relationship. It apparently is an erotic sign (EROS) but, in fact, it is a sign of discharge of anguish (TANATOS).

Class entities, represented by social institutions, should reflect upon polymorphous incest and its individual and social consequences, in order to approach the problem in an unprejudiced way.

### **7. References**

220 Sexual Abuse – Breaking the Silence

This is the problem. The law exists, it is the moral factor. However, respecting it or not depends on individual ethics, because moral is imposed, and ethics have to be lived and understood. Ethics are based on the perception of the conflicts of psychological life (emotion vs. reason), and in the condition – that can be acquired - that we take coherent positions

Not everybody lives and solves conflicts in an ethical manner, because psychological structure is not always adjusted for good mental functioning. Under the psychoanalytical point of view, the Ego should deal with internal and external conflicts. The ego has the function of better understanding ethics, because it is the part of the psychological apparatus that deals with pulsions that come from the Id, and orders that come from the Superego.

People who sexually harass other have a huge difficulty in adapting to the reality principle. Their emotions do not respect reason, because they are not able to take coherent positions when facing the limits and social functions imposed to them. The equivalent of incest, that is, power over the others given by social power, is repeated in sexual harassment when a boss starts to feel like a father, who has power over all the other members of the family and

Sexual harassment is not a contemporaneous phenomenon, exclusive of a given society. It does not depend of social and moral order, or even gender-related issues. It is generally seen

However, cultural understanding of the way we deal with the attitudes involving sexual

We emphasize that our understanding of sexual harassment encompasses all relationships that involve power. This power is linked to a function given by an institution, and the person that accepted to be harassed was under pressure. Therefore, his/ her acceptance

Sex relationships may be considered a special type of social relationship, one that is marked by respect to the other, and not on acting on incestuous impulses or perverse, polymorphous fantasies (child sexuality). Society imposes rules related to these issues.

Sexual perversion consequent to the abuse of power (sexual relationships between doctors and patients, teachers and students, bosses and employees, priests and churchgoers) should be considered an equivalent of incest, which we call polymorphous incest. It is clearly sexual abuse, because consent is not valid, because the harasser is only acting on Oedipal or pre-Oedipal fantasies. It is a socially illicit act, because it perverts professional function. It is abuse of power in an asymmetric relationship. It is a violent act, from an institutional viewpoint, because the individual takes advantage of preexisting professional trust to transform the professional relationship in another type of relationship. It apparently is an erotic sign (EROS) but, in fact, it is a sign of discharge of

as a type of sex crime, and not as an incestuous relationship.

when facing these conflicts.

(Cohen and Segre, 2008)

consequently, may abuse them.

harassment can be changed.

cannot be considered valid.

anguish (TANATOS).

**6. Conclusion** 


Since 1993 Taiwan has become an ageing society. The growing number of old people increases the demands of long-term care. However, this trend has been ignored by the government. With little support from the government and decline of family size, middle-class families are likely to depend on paid employment for caring the family elderly. Every year thousands of migrant women from Southeast Asia enter Taiwan to work in private households as care

Due to the lack of workplace protection and the live-in close relationship between employee and employer, these migrant women workers are vulnerable to exploitation and abuse in the workplace. However, the problem of abuse of live-in care workers have been largely ignored by Taiwanese feminist scholars of domestic violence and scholars of migration studies. This ignorance is also manifested in the policy of the government. Even though some studies of migration in Taiwan have recently revealed the disadvantages faced by livein care workers in their employment (Lin, 1999; Lan, 2000 & 2006; Cheng, 2004; Loveband, 2004; Liang, 2011), few investigate the problem of sexual violence against migrant women

Accordingly, by analyzing the internal dynamics of Taiwanese households employing female migrant workers, this chapter aims to explore a topic ignored by the research on global migration and domestic violence. Drawing data from interviews and documents, this chapter illustrates how the cultural norms and family ideologies behind the foreign labor system reinforce the exploitation and abusive relationship. This chapter is divided into four sections following this introduction. First, this chapter analyzes the changes of population and family structure in Taiwan. Second, this chapter presents policies and regulations regarding live-in care workers. Third, this chapter illustrates the cases of live-in care workers who are sexually abused. Finally, this chapter investigates the internal dynamics of

The population structure of Taiwan has transformed over the past fifteen years. In 2010, the total population was approximately 23 millions. Persons aged over 65 constitute 10.7% of

workers providing care for the frail elderly or persons with severe disabilities.

workers in private households (Pan and Yang, 2012).

Taiwanese household employing live-in care workers.

**2. Changes of population and family structure** 

**2.1 Changes of population** 

**1. Introduction** 

*1Graduate Institute of Social Work, National Taiwan Normal University,* 

Shu-Man Pan1 and Jung-Tsung Yang2

 *Taiwan* 

 *2Department of Sociology, National Taipei University,* 

Shecaria, S.S ( 2011)- Criminologia- Editora Revista dos Tribunais. ISBN-13: 9788520339695 São Paulo-Brazil. **15** 

Shu-Man Pan1 and Jung-Tsung Yang2

*1Graduate Institute of Social Work, National Taiwan Normal University, 2Department of Sociology, National Taipei University, Taiwan* 
