Engaging Bystanders to Prevent Sexual Harassment in Public Transportation: Learnings from an Intervention in Mexico City

The sexual harassment (SH) of women in public transportation is a widespread issue, yet research is sparse on how to prevent this type of violence from occurring. In three papers, this dissertation evaluates the impact of the Hazme el Paro! project, a quasi-experimental study that employed a bystander intervention approach to encourage witnesses to intervene in incidents of SH. The study was conducted in Mexico City, Mexico from 2014 to 2016. Papers 1 and 2 are exploratory studies of the psychosocial variables associated with perceived risk of SH and bystander willingness to intervene, while Paper 3 examines the effect of the Hazme el Paro! intervention. Paper 1 explored the correlates of SH risk perception, and the extent to which psychosocial variables moderated the relationship between experiencing or witnessing SH and the perceived risk of being sexually harassed. Among women, results suggest a positive association between risk perception and a) acceptance of SH norms as pervasive, b) the belief that most women disapprove of SH (injunctive norms), and c) witnessing or experiencing SH. The results indicate that risk perception is higher for women with a history of SH when victim-blaming beliefs are present. Among men, injunctive norms were negatively associated with risk perception. The findings suggest campaigns seeking to reduce SH in public transport should consider the role of risk perception antecedents in the framing of messages intending to motivate bystanders to action. Paper 2 then seeks to examine the extent to which risk perception, along with other barriers and facilitators, affected willingness to intervene. As hypothesized, scoring high on self-efficacy to intervene attenuated the negative relationship between holding victim-blaming beliefs and the intention to help a victim of SH. Similarly, those with greater outcome expectations scored higher on willingness to intervene, despite their strong victim-blaming beliefs, than those who reported low outcome expectations. The findings suggest that promoting self-efficacy and outcome expectations may be a viable strategy for increasing bystander intention to intervene, specifically among those with stronger victim-blaming beliefs – the group least likely to express a desire to intervene. Paper 3 documents the extent to which the intervention mattered in significantly improving willingness to intervene and actual intervening behaviors. When examining the overall impact of the intervention bus route and controlling for changes in the comparison bus route as per the difference-in-difference method, the analyses showed statistical significance with the intervention being effective in increasing willingness to intervene at end-line. Based on end-line data only, male respondents in the intervention bus route were more likely to report prosocial bystander behaviors. Findings indicate a dose response effect; greater exposure to the intervention was associated with increased willingness to intervene (among men only) and bystander behavior. Paper 3 also sought to examine the pathway of influence of the intervention; results suggest outcome expectations and victim-blaming were pathways for both men and women. Overall, the findings from this dissertation suggest that a low-resource bystander intervention initiative in public transportation can indeed influence the intention of bystanders to step in and interrupt an incident of SH