Social Representations and Experiences of Sexual Transactions Among Swiss Youth.

This article relies on quantitative data collected in Switzerland as part of a research study on sexual transactions among youth. Building on an analytical framework that defines sexual transactions in terms of negotiated exchanges rooted in social representations, we explored how they were perceived by the Swiss young people included in our sample at a cognitive, ethical, and political level. We found that research participants who reported having experienced sexual transactions viewed them much more positively than those who reported never having engaged in such exchanges. While this was especially true among young women, we also found that the tendency of respondents to perceive sexual transactions negatively increased with age. When analyzed in light of the qualitative results of our study, these quantitative findings suggest that negative representations of sexual transactions are less likely to be based on lived experience than on an ideal-type of sexual behavior. In other words, our research highlights how young people interpret sexuality according to norms developed within a heteronormative matrix.

Experiences of Street Harassment and the Active Engagement of Bystanders: Insights From a Swiss Sample of Respondents.

In this article, we analyze data from a survey conducted in the Swiss city of Fribourg to investigate the correlation between bystanders' experiences of street harassment and their likelihood of active engagement and strategies used to stop the harasser or assist and support targets of street harassment. Results reveal that, among bystanders, lifetime experiences of street harassment correlate positively with their ability to recognize street harassment conduct and the likelihood of intervention, support of the survivors, and reporting emergencies, even more significantly when the bystander endured physical abuse. In addition, behavioral differences among bystanders reflect different forms of resistance to the sexist culture that fuels street harassment. In light of these findings, we emphasize the need to integrate the narratives of the bystanders into awareness programs and campaigns, the importance of designing tools and policies to improve feelings of safety and limit street harassment conducts, including forms of benevolent sexism, and support further studies to assess the effectiveness of different intervention strategies in support of victims, including the need to research the use of digital media and its impact as a deterrent to street harassment or in increasing police reporting.