Is Sexual Harassment a Crime in Michigan?

"Sexual harassment" is not the name of a crime in the Michigan sources reviewed for this guide. The term is defined in Michigan's civil-rights law, the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, as a form of discrimination because of sex.^[1] Conduct that people describe as sexual harassment becomes a criminal matter only when it meets the elements of a specific offense, such as criminal sexual conduct, stalking, or malicious use of a telecommunications service.^[2][3][4]

If you are in immediate danger, call 911.^[7] The National Sexual Assault Hotline offers free, confidential support 24 hours a day at 800-656-HOPE (4673).^[8] Michigan's VOICES4 hotline takes calls and texts at 855-864-2374.^[7]

This page explains how that conclusion was reached, which criminal statutes can apply and what each one requires, and where the civil-rights and school systems fit.

How this guide reached the answer

The statement that sexual harassment is not a crime in Michigan is a finding from absence. No source reviewed for this guide says it in so many words. The research for this guide covered the Penal Code sections on sex offenses, stalking and communications offenses and the corresponding chapters of the Michigan Judicial Institute's Sexual Assault Benchbook, and found no offense with that name in them. What the research did find is a definition of the term in a civil statute.

That definition is in MCL 37.2103(k): "Discrimination because of sex includes sexual harassment. Sexual harassment means unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct or communication of a sexual nature," under three listed conditions.^[1] The conditions concern whether submission is made a term or condition of employment, services, education or housing; whether submission or rejection is used as a factor in decisions affecting the person; and whether the conduct substantially interferes with those things or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment.^[9]

A civil-rights statute is enforced through complaints and lawsuits brought by or for the affected person. Criminal law is different: a crime is an offense against the public, pursued by the state.^[6] So in a criminal case the question is not "was this sexual harassment?" but "does this conduct meet the elements of a particular offense?"

Which criminal statutes can apply?

Conduct	Statute that can apply	Maximum penalty
Sexual contact accomplished by force or coercion, which the statute defines to include contact achieved through concealment or by the element of surprise	Criminal sexual conduct in the fourth degree, MCL 750.520e	Misdemeanor: 2 years, a fine of $500, or both[2][10]
A willful course of conduct involving repeated or continuing harassment that would cause a reasonable person to feel, and actually causes the victim to feel, terrorized, frightened, intimidated, threatened, harassed, or molested	Stalking, MCL 750.411h	Misdemeanor: 1 year, a fine of $1,000, or both; a felony punishable by up to 5 years, a fine of $10,000, or both if the victim was under 18 at any time during the course of conduct and the individual is 5 or more years older[3]
Maliciously using a telecommunications service, with intent to terrorize, frighten, intimidate, threaten, harass, molest or annoy another person, by using vulgar, indecent, obscene or offensive language or suggesting any lewd or lascivious act in a conversation or message	Malicious use of a telecommunications service, MCL 750.540e	Misdemeanor: 6 months, a fine of $1,000, or both[4]
Posting a message to cause others to contact and harass a person	Unlawful posting of a message, MCL 750.411s	Felony: 2 years, a fine of $5,000, or both; higher with listed aggravators[11]
Knowingly exposing oneself	Indecent exposure, MCL 750.335a	Misdemeanor: 1 year, a fine of $1,000, or both[12][13]
Sharing a sexually explicit image of an adult with intent to threaten, coerce or intimidate	MCL 750.145e	Misdemeanor: 93 days, a fine of $500, or both, for a first violation[14][15]
Intentionally and maliciously threatening to release, exhibit, create or distribute sexually explicit visual material of another individual, in order to compel or attempt to compel an individual to do or refrain from doing an act against the individual's will, with the intent to obtain sexually explicit visual material or anything else of value	Sexual extortion, MCL 750.213b	Felony: 5 years, a fine of $5,000, or both, for a first offense[16][17]
Secretly photographing or recording a person who is unclothed or in undergarments	MCL 750.539j	Felony: 5 years, a fine of $5,000, or both[18][19]

Each row is a separate offense with its own elements, and each figure is the maximum shown in the cited section. Nothing in the table says what will be charged or what sentence will follow in any case.

Unwanted touching: fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct

One offense that can apply to physical conduct is criminal sexual conduct in the fourth degree. A person commits it by engaging in sexual contact with another person where one of the listed circumstances exists, including that force or coercion is used to accomplish the contact.^[2]

The statute's definition of force or coercion "includes, but is not limited to" a list of situations: overcoming the victim through actual physical force, coercing submission by threats of present or future harm, and others.^[20] The last listed circumstance reads: "When the actor achieves the sexual contact through concealment or by the element of surprise."^[2]

"Sexual contact" has a defined meaning. It includes the intentional touching of the victim's or actor's intimate parts, or of the clothing covering the immediate area of those parts, if the touching can reasonably be construed as being for sexual arousal or gratification, done for a sexual purpose, or done in a sexual manner for revenge, to inflict humiliation, or out of anger.^[21] Touching over clothing is therefore within the definition.^[21]

Fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct is labeled a misdemeanor but is punishable by up to 2 years in prison, a fine of up to $500, or both.^[10] A conviction is a Tier I offense under the Sex Offenders Registration Act if the victim is 18 or older, and a higher tier where the victim is a minor.^[22][23] The full offense is explained in fourth-degree CSC and force or coercion under the CSC statutes.

Repeated unwanted contact: stalking

Michigan's stalking statute defines the word "harassment" for its own purposes, and that definition is worded differently from the civil-rights definition. For stalking, harassment is conduct directed toward a victim that includes, but is not limited to, repeated or continuing unconsented contact that would cause a reasonable individual to suffer emotional distress and that actually causes the victim to suffer emotional distress. It does not include constitutionally protected activity or conduct that serves a legitimate purpose.^[24]

Stalking itself requires more. It is a willful course of conduct involving repeated or continuing harassment that would cause a reasonable person to feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated, threatened, harassed, or molested and that actually causes the victim to feel that way.^[3] A "course of conduct" is a pattern of 2 or more separate noncontinuous acts evidencing a continuity of purpose.^[24]

"Unconsented contact" is contact initiated or continued without the individual's consent or in disregard of the individual's expressed desire that it stop. The statute's examples include following or appearing within sight of the person, appearing at the person's workplace or residence, contacting the person by telephone, and sending mail or electronic communications.^[24]

The statute also contains an evidentiary rule. Evidence that the defendant continued a course of conduct involving repeated unconsented contact after the victim asked the defendant to discontinue it and to refrain from further unconsented contact gives rise to a rebuttable presumption that the continued conduct caused the victim to feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated, threatened, harassed, or molested.^[25] A stalking penalty may also be imposed in addition to the penalty for any other offense arising from the same conduct.^[25]

The sister guide covers this offense in depth in Michigan's stalking law and aggravated stalking.

Calls, texts and online conduct

Malicious use of a telecommunications service. This misdemeanor applies to a person who maliciously uses a telecommunications service with intent to terrorize, frighten, intimidate, threaten, harass, molest, or annoy another person by doing one of several listed things.^[5] One of them is using vulgar, indecent, obscene, or offensive language or suggesting any lewd or lascivious act in a conversation or message.^[4] The offense is committed if the communication either originates or terminates in Michigan.^[5]

Unlawful posting. It is a felony to post a message through any medium of communication, without the victim's consent, when the person knows or has reason to know the post could cause 2 or more separate noncontinuous acts of unconsented contact with the victim, and the other statutory conditions are met.^[11] See online harassment and posting messages.

Images. Sharing, threatening to share, fabricating or secretly capturing intimate images are each covered by their own statutes.^{[14][16][26][18]} They are explained in nonconsensual intimate images, sextortion, deepfake intimate images and voyeurism and hidden cameras.

Where the term lives: civil-rights law, schools and employers

The conduct named in the civil-rights definition, unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct or communication of a sexual nature, is addressed by civil law under the conditions that definition lists.^[1]

• Michigan civil-rights law. The Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act treats sexual harassment as sex discrimination in employment, public accommodations and public services, education, and housing.^[1][9] In employment it applies to an employer with 1 or more employees.^[27]
• Federal employment law. Federal regulations define sexual harassment in similar terms for employment, and Title VII applies to employers with fifteen or more employees.^[28][29]
• Schools and colleges. The Title IX regulations use their own three-part definition of sexual harassment.^[30]

The deadlines are different from criminal time limits. A complaint to the Michigan Department of Civil Rights must be filed within 180 days after the alleged discrimination, and a claim may be filed in state court within three years without going to the department first.^[31][32] In Michigan a person has 300 days from the alleged harm to file a charge with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against an employer with 15 or more employees.^[33]

These systems are explained in workplace sexual harassment law, deadlines to file a sexual harassment claim and the Title IX process. People who have been accused at work can start with accused of sexual harassment at work.

Can the same conduct be both?

Yes. The Michigan Supreme Court has explained that the same act may be both a crime and a tort: the crime is an offense against the public pursued by the state, and the tort is a private injury pursued by the injured party.^[6] An unwanted sexual touching by a supervisor, for example, can be examined as fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct by a prosecuting attorney and as sexual harassment under the civil-rights act by the employee.^[2][1]

The two processes have different decision-makers, standards and outcomes; see criminal case versus civil case. Court orders restricting contact are a third route. Michigan's personal protection order (PPO) statutes define "sexual assault" by reference to the criminal sexual conduct statutes.^[34] See the sexual assault PPO and types of PPOs in Michigan.

What people get wrong

"Sexual harassment is a crime." This guide found no Michigan offense by that name. Specific statutes apply only when their elements are met, and the term itself is defined in the civil-rights act.^[1]

"If it is not a crime, nothing can be done." Civil-rights law provides its own complaint and lawsuit routes with their own deadlines.^[31][32]

"Harassment means the same thing everywhere." The stalking statute, the civil-rights act and the Title IX regulations each define the word differently.^[24][1][30]

"A grab over clothing is only a workplace matter." The definition of sexual contact includes touching the clothing covering intimate parts, and contact achieved by surprise is within fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct.^[21][2]

For how the legal labels relate to one another, see what counts as sexual misconduct under Michigan law.