Sexual and other forms of harassment are a pressing problem in universities, and one of the most important tools to combat such behaviour are codes of ethics and policies. These documents aim to regulate relationships at universities in order to prevent harassment and provide a process to protect victims.
With the research questions, I wanted to find out who is bound by the codes of ethics and policies in the first place and which behaviours are prohibited. In the context of prohibited acts, I also looked at the phenomenon of the prohibition on making false reports. I also explored the procedural aspect of codes of ethics and policies, in particular the existence of appelate body, the time limits for complaints and the forms of sanctions. I have examined whether provisions on the obligation to protect the privacy of the perpetrator appear in codes of ethics and policies. Finally, I have looked at the area of online harassment and the relationship between academic freedom and the prohibition of harassment. After obtaining the baseline data, I also checked the association between the selected variables.
I found that there is a statistically significant association between data representing who all is bound by a code of ethics or a policy and what the sanctions are. I also observed a trend in the association between prohibited forms of behaviour and the provision prohibiting false complaints, and between the existence of an appelate body and certain forms of sanctions.
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