The harassment of parliamentarians and judicial officers: a South Australian perspective

Abstract

An anonymous electronic survey was distributed to the members of the South Australian parliament and judiciary. Data was analysed to determine whether there were meaningful differences between parliamentarians and judicial officers in their experiences as victims of harassment. Responses were received from 28% of all members surveyed with 96% of participants reporting at least one form of harassment. Parliamentarians reported a higher prevalence of more serious forms of harassment relative to judicial officers. Parliamentarians reported experiencing harassment in both private and professional contexts whereas judicial officers almost exclusively experienced harassment in a professional context. Harassment caused significant psychological harm and social disruption across both cohorts. There were minor differences in the sources of help utilised by both cohorts; however, judicial officers reported greater satisfaction with help received relative to parliamentarians. The majority of respondents were in favour of receiving advice from a specialised service to mitigate future harassment behaviour.

Keywords:

• fixation
• harassment
• judicial officers
• parliamentarians
• public office holders
• stalking
• threat assessment

Acknowledgements

We thank the South Australian Clerk for the House of Assembly, the Clerk for the Legislative Council and the Executive Officer to the Chief Justice for their invaluable support in conducting this research. We are grateful to the members of parliament and judicial officers who took time to participate in this research, despite the many demands on their time. We also extend our appreciation to Simon Hartmann, Cherrie Galletly and Narian Nambiar for their support.

Ethical standards

Declaration of conflicts of interest

Sravan Anne has declared no conflicts of interest

Cheyenne Gronthos has declared no conflicts of interest

Catherine Crouch has declared no conflicts of interest

Ethical approval

This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.