Bullying and harassment
Bullying
Bullying is offensive, intimidating, malicious or insulting behaviour involving the misuse of power, position or knowledge. Bullying can be physical, verbal and non-verbal (including through social media).
Examples of bullying:
- shouting at someone
- being sarcastic
- ridiculing or demeaning others
- deliberately excluding or ignoring an individual
- physical or psychological threats
- unfair blaming for mistakes.
Harassment
Harassment is unwanted behaviour which violates a person’s dignity, or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment. Harassment can be physical, verbal and non-verbal (including social media).
Harassment is against the law when it occurs because of a person’s age, disability, gender, gender identity, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation.
Examples of harassment:
- unwanted physical conduct including invading personal space and more serious forms of physical or sexual assault
- offensive or intimidating comments or gestures, insensitive jokes or pranks
- mocking a person’s disability
- racist, sexist, homophobic or ageist jokes
- derogatory or stereotypical remarks about an ethnic or religious group or gender
- outing or threatening to out someone as gay, lesbian, bisexual or trans
- ignoring or shunning someone.
- microaggressions, defined as: "Brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioural and environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial, gender, sexual orientation, and religious slights and insults to the target person or group." (D.W. Sue 2010)
Online harassment
Online harassment is defined as ‘the use of information and communication technologies by an individual or group to repeatedly cause harm to another person with relatively less power to defend themselves’.
Examples of online harassment:
- Cyberstalking - repeated and deliberate use of the internet and other electronic communication tools to engage in persistent, unwanted communication intending to frighten, intimidate or harass someone, or to spy on someone. (See ‘Domestic abuse and stalking’ for further information about stalking).
- Denigration - sending or posting harmful, untrue or cruel statements about a person to other people.
- Doxxing - sharing someone else’s personal information without their permission.
- Image-based sexual abuse (also known as ‘revenge pornography’) - online disclosure of sexual or intimate photos or videos, without the consent of the person pictured.
- Masquerading - pretending to be someone else online.
- Sexting - the exchange of online sexual images or videos. This is illegal for under-18s. Where sexual photos of adults are shared online between adults (that is, over 18), without permission of the person/people photographed, this is usually classified as ‘image-based sexual abuse’ or ‘revenge pornography’.
- Trolling- sending or posting deliberately inflammatory, inappropriate or controversial messages or comments on the internet in order to upset and provoke responses from other internet users.
- Upskirting - filming or photographing under a person’s clothes without their consent to capture images of their body or underwear.
Our Student Bullying and Harassment Procedure (pdf) has information about the systems in place for students to resolve and report issues while at Brighton.
Our COVID-19: Online harassment guide (pdf) provides further information, help and support for students during the pandemic, including recommended contacts for specialist support services.
External specialist support services
Ditch the Label
National organisation that provides resources and digital one-to-one support for young people who have concerns about bullying or related issues.
Revenge Porn Helpline
National helpline supporting adults (those over the age of 18) who are victims of image-based sexual abuse.
Discrimination
Discrimination looks different for different people, and can make you feel excluded or ‘other’. Unlawful discrimination is when an individual or group of people is treated less favourably than others based on their age, disability, gender, gender identity, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief or sexual orientation.
Types of discrimination:
Direct discrimination occurs when someone is treated less favourably than another person because of a protected characteristic they have or are thought to have, or because they associate with someone who has a protected characteristic.
Indirect discrimination can happen when there is a condition, rule, policy or practice that applies to everyone but particularly disadvantages people who share a specific protected characteristic. However, it isn’t classed as indirect discrimination if it can be shown that the condition, rule, policy or practice is reasonable.
Domestic abuse and stalking
Domestic (dating / intimate partner / family) abuse
Domestic abuse is patterned, repeated behaviour intended to assert power and control, by a partner, ex-partner or family member.
Examples of domestic abuse:
- coercive control (a pattern of intimidation, degradation, isolation and control with the use or threat of physical or sexual violence)
- psychological and/or emotional abuse
- physical abuse
- sexual abuse
- financial abuse
- harassment
- online or digital abuse
- female genital mutilation
- ‘honour' based abuse, including forced marriage
Stalking
Stalking is a pattern of repeated and persistent unwanted behaviour that is intrusive and engenders fear. It is when one person becomes fixated or obsessed with another and the attention is unwanted. Threats may not be made but victims may feel scared. Even if there is no threat this is till stalking and it is a crime.
Social media and the internet are often used for stalking, and ‘cyberstalking’ or online threats can be just as intimidating as other forms of stalking.
See ‘Bullying and Harassment’ for further information about cyberstalking and other forms of online harassment.
Our COVID-19: Experiencing or at risk of domestic abuse guide (pdf) provides further information, help and support for our students during the pandemic and national / regional restrictions, including recommended contacts for specialist support services.
External specialist support services
Victim Support - Brighton and Hove Domestic Abuse Specialist Support
Independent information, advice, support and advocacy support for victims and survivors of domestic abuse in the city.
RISE
Helpline, drop-ins, support groups and counselling for women, children, young people and LGBT people in Brighton and Hove and West Sussex affected by domestic abuse.
Change Grow Live (CGL) - East Sussex Domestic Abuse Service
Information, advocacy and practical and emotional support to women, men and children living with domestic abuse and violence in the East Sussex area.
Veritas Justice
Advice and advocacy for stalking victims in Sussex.
Karma Nirvana
UK Helpline for ‘honour’-based abuse and forced marriage.
Hate incidents and hate crime
Hate incidents
Hate incidents are acts of hostility or violence motivated by prejudice based on disability, race, religion, sexual orientation or transgender identity.
Examples of hate incidents:
- abusive phone calls
- graffiti
- abuse through social media
- intimidation
- threats of violence and verbal abuse.
Hate crime
When hate incidents break the law, they are known as hate crimes.
Examples of hate crime:
- assault
- criminal damage
- hate mail
- sexual assault
- theft.
External specialist support services
True Vision
National organisation that provides information about hate crime or incidents and advice on how to report it.
Sussex Police
You can report a hate crime/incident to Sussex Police by contacting them on 101 or completing a quick and simple online form on their website.
Brighton and Hove Partnership Community Safety Team
Supports and advises people who have experienced harassment, victimisation, intimidation or abuse because of their race, faith, religion, disability or because they are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.
East Sussex Safer Communities Partnership
If you live in Eastbourne or Hastings and Rother you can make a third party report of a hate crime/incident to your local Citizens Advice Bureau which would result in the incident being recorded but not investigated any further.
Physical assault
Physical assault is when an individual or a group attacks a person physically, with or without the use of a weapon, or threatens to hurt that person. It can include scratching, pushing, kicking, punching, throwing things, using weapons or physically restraining another person.
Physical assault can happen to anyone, regardless of gender, age or any other characteristic. However, if the assault was motivated by hostility towards a person or group due to a protected characteristic, that is considered a hate crime. Physical assault within relationships, or between family members is classified as domestic violence.
External specialist support services
If you are in immediate danger or seriously injured call 999 (or 112 from a mobile).
If you are on university premises, you should also call the university emergency number 01273 642222 to inform site staff.
Sussex Police
You can also report a crime to Sussex Police using the non-emergency number, 101, or by completing a quick and simple online form on their website.
Sexual violence
Sexual violence is any unwanted sexual comments and non-consensual sexual acts and activity.
Examples of sexual violence:
- sexual intercourse or engaging in a sexual act without consent
- attempting to engage in sexual intercourse or engaging in a sexual act without consent
- sharing private sexual materials of another person without consent
- kissing without consent
- touching inappropriately through clothes without consent
- inappropriately showing sexual organs to another person
- repeatedly following another person without good reason
- making unwanted remarks of a sexual nature.
Understanding consent
A person consents to sex if that person 'agrees by choice and has the freedom and capacity to make that choice'. A person can also consent to one form of sexual activity but not to another, and they have the right to say no at any time.
The law clearly states that having any kind of sex without getting consent is illegal, and sexual activity without consent is rape or sexual assault. It is also a crime to target people who are under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
Our Sexual violence leaflet (pdf) provides additional information, help and support for our students.
External specialist support services
Survivors Network, Rape Crisis Centre
Advocacy, telephone helpline, counselling, drop-in and groups for survivors of sexual violence and abuse in Brighton and Hove and East Sussex.
Saturn Centre, Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC)
Crisis support, forensic medical examination, and medical care for anyone in Sussex who has experienced sexual violence and/or sexual abuse.
Mankind
Support for men in Sussex affected by unwanted sexual experiences.