Challenging the unchallenged: Institutional barriers to addressing sexual harassment in policing

Abstract Internal sexual harassment persists in UK policing, yet the social mechanisms sustaining silence remain under-specified. We report findings from a vignette-based, anonymous survey of employees in a large UK police force. Across victim and witness scenarios, participants favoured informal resolution over formal complaint, citing organizational distrust, opaque procedures, fear of ostracism, rank hierarchies, and the normalization of ‘banter’. Gendered expectations and shorter tenure further discourage challenges to harassment. Suggested reforms included clearer policies, confidential multi-path reporting, enhanced training—especially bystander roles—and restorative justice for lower-level harms. By foregrounding witnesses and men, we show how occupational solidarity and masculinity shape a bystander calculus that reproduces silence, while also identifying institutional levers for reform.