Sexualized Violence refers to an act of violence, whether the act is physical or psychological in nature, that is characterized by an attempt to threaten, intimidate, coerce, or engage in any unwelcome behaviour of a sexual nature against a member of the university community without that member’s consent.
Sexual assault and sexual harassment are subsets of sexualized violence. Other examples, include but are not limited to, creating and/or sharing images non-consensually, stalking, voyeurism, and stealthing.
Who experiences sexualized violence?
Anyone, regardless of gender, age, education, employment status, sexual orientation, cultural background, race, ethnicity, ability or disability, ancestry, or religion, can be subjected to sexualized violence.
Sexualized violence is usually intertwined with other forms of oppression. For example, women with disabilities or Indigenous & racialized women may be at greater risk of experiencing sexualized violence than others. We know that sexualized violence is mostly experienced by women, children – including boys – and transgender and gender non-conforming people.
Sexualized violence is not about desire and sexual attraction. It’s about power and control. It involves an abuse of power by a person with more social, academic, or employment power over someone with less power.
Video: What is Sexual Violence?
Impact & Consequences
Support for responding to a disclosure
Updated information on requirements for supervisors and managers to engage with the university’s sexualized violence advisor, Lyndsay Anderson, when you receive a disclosure or report of sexualized violence.
The sexualized violence advisor will be flexible in terms of meeting with complainants, including virtual meetings and meetings at alternate locations on campus at the request of the complainant. Please call 902-494-6672 or email HRES@dal.ca to schedule a meeting.
Video: Speak Truth to Power: Sounding the Alarm on Gender-Based Violence
