**2. Definition of sexual harassment**

According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, "all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood". Sexual harassment is an offence to human rights.

Sexual harassment is a problem that afflicts the entire world. In the 1990s, the number of cases in United States increased, the profile of victims changed, and more laws were created in order to set new precedents.

People from different backgrounds, cultures and social positions have found themselves involved in sexual harassment cases, from presidents to church leaders.

Sexual harassment in the workplace is attracting increasing attention, nowadays, many countries have established laws forbidding this conduct in the workplace. This kind of offence is not only a problem of the Western world: the Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights (ECWR) describes the problem as a social cancer. A survey made by this organization showed that sexual harassment was experienced by 98% foreign women visitors, and by 83% Egyptian women.

The research team on sexual harassment at workplace of Women Watch-China showed that 23.9% of the interviewees reported having witnessed or heard about sexual harassment of other employees in the same company, 19.8% of the interviewees admitted having been

anything of sexual nature, from verbal to physical behavior (U.S. Equal Employment

Polymorphous incest, according to Cohen (1992), "involves sexual relationships between people that take advantage of their positions or jobs to have sexual satisfaction with someone who has a subaltern position, and is considered an equivalent of incest". Professional relationships are vertically asymmetric, and may be equivalent to the parent-

There is a relationship of power between bosses and their subordinates, between psychoanalysts and their patients, professors and students. This relationship of power is the central point of this discussion, because it has an element of social control in it (Foucault,

According to Foucault, sexuality and politics are the two most important taboos in society, with discourses filled with the search for desire and power, the struggle for control and the

Our proposal is to demonstrate that sexual harassment in a professional environment is a type of incest and cannot be simply classified as sexual assault. In these cases, besides the abuse of power, violence towards the victim is frequent, and because of these factors, sexual

We will use Freud's psychoanalytical theory to explain the basis of sexual development, how sexuality develops normally, and what causes certain deviations in a way that a human

According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, "all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood". Sexual harassment is an offence to

Sexual harassment is a problem that afflicts the entire world. In the 1990s, the number of cases in United States increased, the profile of victims changed, and more laws were created

People from different backgrounds, cultures and social positions have found themselves

Sexual harassment in the workplace is attracting increasing attention, nowadays, many countries have established laws forbidding this conduct in the workplace. This kind of offence is not only a problem of the Western world: the Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights (ECWR) describes the problem as a social cancer. A survey made by this organization showed that sexual harassment was experienced by 98% foreign women visitors, and by

The research team on sexual harassment at workplace of Women Watch-China showed that 23.9% of the interviewees reported having witnessed or heard about sexual harassment of other employees in the same company, 19.8% of the interviewees admitted having been

involved in sexual harassment cases, from presidents to church leaders.

child relationship, that is, they have hierarchy of power and specific laws.

Opportunity Commission).

prohibitions related to them. (Foucault, 1993)

harassment is called "polymorphous incest".

being will show socially unacceptable sexual.

**2. Definition of sexual harassment** 

in order to set new precedents.

83% Egyptian women.

1993).

human rights.

sexually harassed, and 5.3% of interviewees admitted having sexually harassed others (Women Watch-China, 2010). This research team suggested helping companies to establish a mechanism to prevent sexual harassment at work, besides discussing and improving laws and regulations on the issue.

Sexual harassment is characterized by different actions, which may be comments of sexual nature such as jokes, insinuations or wordplay, or even verbal and physical abuse to obtain sexual favors. We have to emphasize here that sexual harassment is related with undesirable conducts that are not pleasurable for the receptor, that is, they are imposed, and uncorresponded. That is when we can see the difference with conducts in corresponded affective relationships.

However, sexual harassment has a component of the neurotic behavior in hysteria, observed by Freud when dealing with hysteria in three essays on sexuality. In hysteria, there is a contradiction: excessive sexual need on one side, and excessive sexual repression on the other. The person affected by this disorder likes to be harassed, and many times demonstrates interest in the proposal. However, he or she cannot act on it, and unconsciously uses this ambivalence, with a secondary benefit, playing the role of the victim.

Sexual harassment is one of the offenses to sexual freedom, and the perpetrator may be any person, men, women, and even the victim. However, what we would like to emphasize here is the contribution of the victim to the offense. As in the case of any crime, sexual harassment is also analyzed in criminology, the science that studies crime, criminality and their causes: the victim, social control of the criminal act, personality of the criminal and the way to insert him/her back into society.

Shecaria ( 2011 ) emphasizes that "victim studies are very important, because they enable the examination of the role of the victim as a trigger of the crime. Besides, they enable the study on judicial, moral, psychological and therapeutic assistance, especially in cases of violence or severe threat to the person, crimes that leave marks or traumas, making it possible to determine adequate measures, and enabling the indemnification of the victims by state programs, as occurs in several countries..."

Elias Neuman (1984), an Argentinean criminologist, emphasized that the victim may be the triggering factor in the etiology of crime and, in certain cases and circumstances, may assume a posture that contributes to the offense. In some cases, the notion of the victim's innocence should be set aside.

The worldwide trend is to relate sexual harassment to the work environment. In some countries, sexual harassment at work is considered a crime, whereas in other countries in the Middle East, there are no regulations on the subject.

The workplace is where several people have their jobs and, generally, have an intimate relationship for long periods. This environment creates an opportunity for people to get close to each other. This intense relationship between work colleagues may give rise to intimate relationships that may even lead to marriage, and it is an absolutely normal fact of life that people meet each other, feel attracted and decide to consolidate affective relationships.

Considering the Sexual Harassment as an Equivalent Incestuous 213

has authority over the victim, such as a step father or mother, uncle or aunt, sibling, spouse,

It is important to demonstrate that laws are created based on a set of social factors. The most important of these factors are the institutions. Bleger (2001) defines institution as a set of norms that generate social values. Their essential function is to create rules for groups of individuals. The function of the Institution is to create values that transcend and characterized the individual. The institution comes before the professional relationship.

Social institutions are some of the ways that society uses to achieve satisfaction. In order to do that, regulatory tools are created and imposed to those who they aim at regulating. In Brazil and other countries, there are class entities that create norms of conduct for their members. Social acceptance of a given ideology, such as health, justice, or disease, is carried out by these entities. Institutes are moral representatives of the Institution. They are

Conduct norms are filled with values that are linked to the interests of the institutions. What is expected from one professional is not always applicable to the other: expectations on the conduct of a teacher are different from those of a doctor, and so on. Institutions function as defense mechanisms against the most primitive anguishes of humans, strengthen the ego of

According to Cromberg's understanding "… when thinking that humans should be analyzed by their conscious acts and by social codes, I do not consider these codes allembracing, once sexual and aggressive pulsions resist being domesticated by social codes, and make the psychological reality of humans highly complex. Besides, there is more to reality than that. There are intersubjective relationships that are not moderated only by social codes or necessity. These relationships produce imaginary effects that are privileged

Society establishes social codes based on cultural parameters, and does not accept sexual abuse. It will punish the aggressor once he/she is considered guilty. Different from the legal system, the activity of psychoanalysis is not limited to the identification of the aggressor, and to holding him/her accountable for what he/she did. It does not place the victim in a passive position, either. Human nature is more complex and mysterious than we can

Cromberg (2004), when talking about aggressive pulsions, does not refer to innate human

When conduct norms are created, there are moral and ethical issues, with which we deal differently. Moral encompasses three characteristics: the values determined by it, which are not questioned; the fact that these values are imposed to everybody, and the punishment, when rules are disobeyed (Cohen and Segre, 2008). The expression of the values of society is given by the laws. Laws are not warranties of human behavior, once respecting the law depends on ethics, which are experienced differently by each member of society. Some accept the limits better than others. Institutions, with their conduct norms, abhor the

their members, and make it possible for them to carry out their jobs (Jaques, 1969).

tutor, guardian, preceptor or boss.

**3. Institutions: Ethical and moral aspects** 

professional boards, courts, family, and others.

members of our psychological reality" (Cromberg, 2004).

nature, but to natural inclination towards aggressiveness.

imagine.

However, there are situations in which affection is not corresponded. In these cases, sexual coercion may be practiced by people in superior hierarchic position, constituting sexual harassment. The behavior of the harasser may be beyond reasonable standards, and may involve exchanging sexual favors for permanence on the job; inadequate invitations involving promotions, and other situations.

Studies carried out in Brazil (Cohen et al.), and in other parts of the world (China and Egypt) demonstrated that women are more harassed than men. However, we should consider that, even if less frequent, men are also harassed. There is, though, a dark figure, because men do not report the crime because of fear of prejudice. Fazary (2004 ) states that "The 'dark figure' of crime is not some sinister character but a theory that postulates that we do not know how much crime is out there, and that with current methods of studying of crime we have no way of knowing the truth".

Failure to report an offense is very common, especially in cases of sexual abuse. There is a certain embarrassment on the part of victims to make the event public. In 1994, the matter was dealt with by the American film industry in the film "Disclosure", directed by Barry Levinson, a film on sexual harassment in which the man who is harassed by his new female boss.

The United States were the first country to make sexual harassment a crime, on the second half of the 1970s. From this moment on, other countries considered sexual harassment a crime. Among them, Spain, Portugal, France and Italy. In Brazil, it was introduced as a sex offense in the penal code only in 2001.

Although Brazilian regulations have make sexual harassment in the workplace a crime, we emphasize that the problem is much wider, as we will show in this discussion. Although there is a law that criminalizes sexual harassment, seldom do harassed people seek legal compensation for the problem. In most of the cases, the final legal decisions are do not favor those who appeal.

According to Pamplona Filho (2001 ), sexual harassment is any unwanted conduct of sexual nature which, although turned down, is continuously repeated, restricting the sexual freedom of the victim. This conduct is a violation of the free use of one's own body, and is deeply embarrassing. When occurs at the workplace, consequences are even more devastating.

However, this author, when dealing with the free use of the body, show us that sexual harassment may occur in other places and other social relationships, such as the academic world (professors, students, education workers); in hospitals (among doctors, aides and patients); in the religious world (among clergy and churchgoers).

These relationships, and even those between a boss and an employee, have an ethicalinstitutional structuring function that is called polymorphous incest or equivalent of incest. Institutions and relationships established between peers are moralistic and paternalistic, a reflection of the parent-child relationship (incest itself) and of its endogamy prohibition (Cohen, 1999).

In this context, Brazilian laws also consider it a crime, because it is another type of sex offense, such as rape. Penalties are greater when the offense is practiced by someone who has authority over the victim, such as a step father or mother, uncle or aunt, sibling, spouse, tutor, guardian, preceptor or boss.
