Sexual Harassment in Malaysian Educational Institution – A review of Its Factors and Effects

Abstract

Sexual harassment is defined as a single or sequence of unwelcoming sexual acts that the receiver perceives as threatening, aggressive, insulting, humiliating, or offensive, intending violate the recipient's dignity. It is impossible to deny that sexual harassment is on the rise in schools and on college campuses. One of the more significant issues in our modern era is the lack of suitable and effective measures to combat the prevalence of sexual harassment. Therefore, a systematic review was conducted to summarize the trend of sexual harassment within Malaysian educational institutions, its contributing factors, and its implications for the institution and community. Review identification was performed in a database search using PubMed, Scopus, and CINAHL. Based on the criteria consisting of full papers in English published from January 2011 to November 2021, 10 articles were eligible for review. The systematic review revealed that the prevalence of sexual harassment is surprisingly high among students, including physical sexual misconduct. Observing the formal dress code as regulated by the institution and providing a safe and controlled internet browser are believed to be helpful in producing a safe environment at the institution.