Understanding Sexual Misconduct and Domestic and Family Violence

Sexual harassment is an unwelcome sexual behaviour that makes a person feel offended, humiliated or intimidated. It can include both physical and verbal behaviours. Some examples of sexual harassment include:

• Someone making unwelcome comments about a person's appearance or sex life;
• Unwelcome sexual advances or requests for sexual favours;
• Unwanted invitations to go on dates;
• Sexual comments or jokes;
• Staring or leering;
• Unwelcome physical touching;
• Showing a person sexually explicit or pornographic content on any electronic devices.

Sexual harassment can take place in-person or online (via social media, texts, emails etc.). You can be sexually harassed by someone you know or by a stranger.

A behaviour does not have to be repeated to be considered as sexual harassment. A single instance of a behaviour is enough to be considered as harassment. Sexual harassment is against the law in Queensland, where it meets the definition under the Anti-Discrimination Act 1991.

Sexual assault encompasses any kind of unwanted or unwelcome sexual activity that occurs without consent. 

Sexual assault includes:

• Unwanted sexual touching;
• Forcing someone to witness a sex act;
• Rape - when someone puts their penis, a body part, or an object into another person's vagina or anus, or where someone puts their penis into another person's mouth, without their consent.

You can be sexually assaulted by a stranger or by someone you know, such as a partner, colleague, friend, or family member. Sexual assault is a crime under Queensland law.

Consent refers to the freely-given, informed and voluntary agreement to engage in a specific sexual activity. Consent is more than just a legal requirement. It is about respecting the person you are having sex with, to ensure they are safe, comfortable and feel able to communicate what they want to and do not want to do.

Consent:

• Should never be assumed - the absence of a 'no' is not consent.
• Should be specific - just because a person consents to a particular sexual activity does not imply consent to any others.
• Requires continuous communication - this means checking in with the other person regularly to make sure they are comfortable and wish to continue.
• Needs to happen every time - just because you had sex with someon before does not mean you can assume their consent to have sex with you in the future. This includes if you are married or in a relationship.
• Can be withdrawn at any time, through words or conduct.
• Should be affirmative - this means a person is giving you clear, verbal and non-verbal cues to show that they are comfortable, enthusiastic and consenting.

A person cannot consent if:

• They are asleep or unconcsious.
• They are intoxicated or under the influence of drugs to the point where they do not have the capacity to give meaningful consent.
• They are under the age of consent - the age of consent in Queensland is 16.
• They feel pressured, threatened, intimidated or feel that they cannot say no.
• They do not have the capacity to understand the nature of the activity.
• The person has a mistaken belief about the nature of the activity.
• The person has a mistaken belief about the identity of the other person.

Any kind of sexual activity that occurs without consent is considered sexual assault.

Sexual coercion happens when you are pressured, misled, manipulated, threatened or forced in a non-physical way to engage in any kind of sexual activity. Sexual activity that occurs as a result of coercion is not sex, it is sexual assault.

Sexual coercion can look like:

• Making threats (For example, threatening to end the relationship if the other person does not have sex with them).
• Making someone scared to refuse sex because of what the other person might do, such as:
  • spreading rumours;
  • using physical violence;
  • sharing private information; or
  • taking away financial support, children or pets.
• Verbally pressuring someone into sex.
• Using guilt, begging or humiliation to tire someone out.
• Lying or promising things that are not true.

• Emotional violence: making a person feel scared, intimidated or worthless. It can include making threats to harm another person, children or pets, being verbally abusive and blaming the person experiencing the abuse.
• Psychological violence: using manipulation tactics to make a person feel insane, or question their memory or judgement.
• Financial violence: controlling a person’s access to money or their ability to make financial decisions for themselves. It can include making a person ask to spend money on basic items such as clothing, food and petrol, or interfering with their employment or ability to attain employment.
• Physical violence: using physical force against another person. It can include pushing, hitting, punching, choking, throwing objects and damaging property.
• Sexual violence: any kind of forced or unwanted sexual activity.
• Social abuse: isolating a person from their social network. This might include not allowing a person to see their friends, family, or colleagues, trying to turn someone’s friends or family against them, controlling social plans, or controlling someone’s ability to contact their friends or family.
• Reproductive abuse: controlling a person’s ability to make choices about their reproductive system and reproductive health. Some examples include controlling someone’s access to birth control, making someone have unprotected sex, forcing or pressuring someone to become pregnant or continue a pregnancy, limiting someone’s access to healthcare (e.g. STI testing, pap smears), or forcing or pressuring someone to have an abortion.
• Technological abuse: using technology to monitor or control another person. It can include tracking someone through the use of surveillance technology, limiting someone’s ability to contact others via phone or internet, checking someone’s internet or phone activity, sending abusive messages, making abusive phone calls or sharing intimate images of another person without their consent.
• Coercive control: a pattern of behaviour that isolates a person from their support network, restricts their freedom or makes them live in fear due to constant monitoring, threats or intimidation. Coercive control might not involve any physical violence, but often has extreme impacts on a person’s mental health and everyday life.

Stalking involves paying someone unwanted attention in a way that frightens them, makes them feel in danger or prevents them from freely going about their life. Stalking is a crime in Queensland.
Stalking can include behaviours such as:

• following a person;
• hanging around where someone works or lives;
• repeatedly contacting someone;
• sending someone unwanted gifts at home or at work;
• sending someone offensive or humiliating material;
• intimidating or harassing someone; or
• threatening violence against someone.

The non-consensual removal, or non-use, of a condom (or any other barrier) during sex. Stealthing is a form of sexual assault.

Drink spiking refers to putting alcohol or drugs into someone's drink without their knowledge or consent. When people hear the term 'spiking' they often think of someone sneaking drugs into an alcoholic drink. However, spiking can also include putting alcohol into a non-alcoholic drink or putting extra alcohol into an alcoholic drink. Regardless of whether it's done as a 'joke' or with malicious intent, spiking is against the law.

The use of technology to frighten, control, threaten or intimidate someone.
Some examples of technology-facilitated abuse include:

• Sharing or threatening to share intimate/sexualised images or videos of someone without their consent (this is also called image-based abuse).
• Tracking someone’s location without their consent (this could be through the use of apps or GPS tracking devices).
• Monitoring internet or phone use.
• Threatening, intimidating or abuse phone calls, emails or messages.
• Installing spyware on someone’s smartphone or computer.
• Spreading rumours about someone or impersonating them online.
   

For more information about technology-facilitated abuse, visit the eSafety Commissioner.