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Over the past five years, the Public Prosecutor has opened more than four thousand investigations into the crime of sexual harassment, which covers cases of sexual harassment and exhibitionist acts. However, of the later only 515 accusations resulted from the latter, that is, 10% of the total number of proceedings initiated. Speaking to ECO-Advocatus, Marta Duarte, Partner at the CCA Litigation and Arbitration Department, and Maria Madalena Perdigão, Associate at the CCA Litigation and Arbitration Department, explain what the law says about what is and is not harassment, in an area where the line that divides what is a crime or not is very fine.
For the CCA lawyers, "the greatest difficulty lies in the 'sexual content proposals' because it is difficult to interpret what should or should not be included in the verification of the practice of the crime. Nevertheless, what is important to guarantee is that in all cases there is a balance between the effective protection of victims and 'fundamentalist exaggerations'”.
"As a general rule, the magistrates are attentive to the specific circumstances of the particular case and take into account the comment itself, the body language (intimidating or not) or the tone of voice (innocuous or provocative) in order to distinguish what constitutes the true sexual harassment and what can be considered as 'flirtation', forcing the first to be convicted but not the second when it may just be a case of gallantry or a positive comment that does not bother its recipient", underlines Marta Duarte and Maria Madalena Perdigão.
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