Abstract
Violence against women (VAW) is gender-based violence directed at women and girls on account of being female that can take on multiple forms and manifest in different contexts. Among the many possible forms of VAW, this article focuses on “piropos”, a type of stranger harassment situation. Specifically, the objectives of this study were two-fold: to analyze the usefulness of a tool to evaluate social attitudes towards this form of VAW and to analyze the influence of sociodemographic variables and prior victimization (whether as a witness or victim) on attitudes towards this type of violence among Spanish youth. An opportunity sample of 538 young Spanish people took part in this study. They filled out a sociodemographic data sheet, a victimization questionnaire designed ad hoc, and a questionnaire on attitudes towards “piropos”. The results obtained indicate that the questionnaire was adequate for use as a tool to evaluate social attitudes towards this type of VAW and suggest its applicability for future studies on attitudes towards “piropos” as a type of stranger harassment situation in a Spanish context. Moreover, the results on victimization not only corroborate the magnitude of street sexual harassment in Spain and a direct effect of gender on the perception of the violence experienced, they also reinforce the need to further investigate new aspects. Regarding attitudes towards “piropos”, the results obtained indicate that, in general, participants demonstrated negative attitudes or rejection, and these feelings were particularly strong among women.
Highlights
Violence against women (VAW) is a type of gender-based violence directed at women and girls on account of being female that can take on multiple forms and manifest in different contexts [1]
Among the many possible forms of VAW, this study focuses on street sexual harassment (SSH), which constitutes a form of sexual violence [2] and, according to some authors [3,4,5,6] may be referred to as public harassment, sexual harassment in public spaces, or stranger harassment, others (e.g., [7]) have pointed out the existence of nuances among these different forms of harassment
The results obtained regarding victimization by gender and age were in accordance with this, indicating that women are witnesses to, and victims of, the different forms of VAW analyzed in this study significantly more often than men, with no difference between the age groups studied
Summary
Violence against women (VAW) is a type of gender-based violence directed at women and girls on account of being female that can take on multiple forms and manifest in different contexts [1]. Among the many possible forms of VAW, this study focuses on street sexual harassment (SSH), which constitutes a form of sexual violence [2] and, according to some authors [3,4,5,6] may be referred to as public harassment, sexual harassment in public spaces, or stranger harassment, others (e.g., [7]) have pointed out the existence of nuances among these different forms of harassment Our interest in this type of VAW is rooted in the fact that, while its precise prevalence is difficult to determine, it has been considered “a universaling experience that almost all women share” [8]
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