Ending impunity for sexual abuse at university: The Flecha-CREA case

Abstract

In July 2025, four media outlets revealed that fourteen women had filed an internal complaint, with the rector of the University of Barcelona, denouncing situations of abuse and sexual harassment, abuse of power, psychological violence, and labor exploitation perpetrated since the 1990s by Ramón Flecha, emeritus professor of Sociology. Founder of the research group CREA (Community of Research on Excellence for All), he describes himself as the “number 1 scientist (world ranking) in gender violence^[1].” In recent years, media reports on this type of behavior perpetrated by university professors and lecturers have proliferated. However, this case stands out because the complainants were women who had been students, scholarship recipients, and/or collaborators at CREA. They follow a pattern that has been repeated for more than three decades, and there were two previous internal complaints at the university regarding the group's alleged cult-like behavior in 2004 and 2016, which were taken to the Public Prosecutor's Office and ultimately dismissed. In July 2025, the university opened an internal investigation with a three-member commission to clarify the reported events. This case highlights the importance of breaking the silence in an environment like the university, where people come seeking to prepare for their future in a safe and violence-free environment, but where it is possible to encounter individuals higher up in the hierarchy who have other aims, such as dominating and abusing women.

^[1] This was his own description on the social network X when this news was published: https://www.rtve.es/noticias/20250702/catorce-mujeres-denuncian-ante-universidad-barcelona-a-catedratico-por-mantener-relaciones-sexuales-con-becarias/16647067.shtml