Perceptions of Professional and Non-Professional Millennial
Men Towards the Street Harassment of Women in San Pedro,
San José, Costa Rica
Esteban Sanabria Mora
InterSedes, Revista electrónica de las sedes regionales de la Universidad de Costa Rica,
ISSN 2215-2458, Volumen XXIII, Número 48, Julio-Diciembre, 2022.
10.15517/isucr.v23i48 | intersedes.ucr.ac.cr | intersedes@ucr.ac.cr
A: Street harassment refers to the unwanted comments, gestures, and actions that
strangers address to people in public places without the consent of the aected individuals. In
Costa Rica, even though anyone regardless of their gender can experience street harassment,
this issue has a major incidence on women as shown on studies such as the Encuesta
Actualidades conducted by the School of Statistics of UCR in 2015 (Umaña, 2016). is
study highlights that 61,7% of all women surveyed indicated having been victims of street
harassment while 32.8% of men indicated the same (Umaña, 2016). is research aimed
to examine the perceptions of professional and non-professional millennial men towards
the street harassment of women in San Pedro, San José, Costa Rica, with the purpose of
determining if the academic educational level of this age group stands as a dierentiating
factor of people who perpetrate street harassment against women. e researcher surveyed
y-two millennial men and results revealed that the academic educational level is not
a determinant factor that dierentiates the perpetrators of street harassment as both
professional and non-professional men harass women almost evenly, and many of them
ignore the denition of street harassment and their types.
R: El acoso callejero se reere a todos aquellos gestos, acciones y comentarios
no deseados que personas extrañas dirigen a sus víctimas en lugares públicos sin el
consentimiento de las personas afectadas. En nuestro país, a pesar de que todas las personas
sin importar su género pueden experimentar acoso callejero, este problema tiene una
mayor incidencia en las mujeres según lo han demostrado estudios como el de la Encuesta
Actualidades de la Escuela de Estadística de la UCR en 2015 (Umaña, 2016). Dicho estudio
arma que un 61,7 % de las mujeres encuestadas aseguraron haber sido víctimas de acoso
callejero frente a un 32,8% de hombres encuestados que indicaron lo mismo (Umaña, 2016).
Esta investigación tuvo como objetivo examinar la percepción de hombres profesionales y
no profesionales de la generación millennial respecto al acoso callejero en San Pedro, San
José, Costa Rica, con el n de determinar si el grado de escolaridad de este grupo etario de los
participantes fungía como factor que diferencia a las personas que perpetran acoso callejero
hacia las mujeres. El investigador encuestó a 52 hombres profesionales y no profesionales
de la generación millennial y los resultados revelaron que la escolaridad no es un factor
determinante que diferencia a los perpetradores de acoso callejero, pues tanto profesionales
como no profesionales acosan casi de igual forma y la mayoría de estas personas desconocen
la denición de acoso callejero y sus tipos.
Universidad de Costa Rica
Sede del Atlántico
Turrialba, Cartago, Costa Rica
esteban.sanabria@ucr.ac.cr
Publicado por la Editorial Sede del Pacíco, Universidad de Costa Rica
P : acoso callejero, género, hombres millennials, violencia, sexismo.
K: street harassment, gender, millennial men, violence, sexism
Percepciones de los hombres millenial profesionales y no profesionales hacia el acoso
callejero de las mujeres en San Pedro, San José, Costa Rica
Recibido: 10-11-21 | Aceptado: 09-03-22
C (APA): Sanabria Mora, E. (2022). Perceptions of Professional and Non-Professional Millennial
Men Towards the Street Harassment of Women in San Pedro, San José, Costa Rica. InterSedes, 23(48), 115–
142. DOI 10.15517/isucr.v23i48.49038
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Perceptions of Professional and Non-Professional
Millennial Men Towards the Street Harassment of
Women in San Pedro, San José, Costa Rica
e street harassment of women is a human rights violation
and a form of gender violence that has increased in the last deca-
des in Costa Rica and the world. Statistics of recent studies of the
University of Costa Rica indicate that 61,7% of women suered
street harassment in our country during 2015 (Umaña, 2016). e
present research includes both old and recent studies in the eld
of gender violence and women subjugation. Such studies conclu-
de, for the most part, that the major causes of the issue are the
impregnation of patriarchal societal values in both men and wo-
men, the imminent economic dominance of men over women,
and the conception of women as sexual objects and second-class
citizens. Even though some studies have surveyed the perceptions
of men towards women suering harassment on the streets, very
few of them have approached the perceptions of professional and
non-professional millennial men, specically. In Costa Rica, some
governmental campaigns have tried to raise people’s awareness of
the real implications of this type of violence. Nonetheless, those
projects have not included the perceptions of the perpetrators of
harassment, but only that of the victims. To narrow the existing
gap on this eld, this research focused on examining the percep-
tions of professional and non-professional millennial men towards
the problem of the street harassment of women in San Pedro, San
José, Costa Rica. is study tried to prove or discard the hypo-
thesis that professional men harass women less frequently than
non-professional ones. e main ndings of the study were that
both groups of men harass women almost evenly, many of them
ignore the real concept of street harassment and its socio-emotio-
nal implications, and that their perceptions towards the practice of
street harassing women are ambiguous. is research, therefore,
is relevant as it set the beginning of a eld of study that must be
explored more eagerly.
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Review of the Literature
People’s understanding of the denition and implications of
street harassment has varied over the years. is section surveys
those evolving conceptions and focuses on considering the street
harassment of women as a human rights violation and a form of
gender violence. Despite the constant increase in the cases of street
harassment of women in Costa Rica, few studies have examined
the perceptions of men towards this social issue. Some initiatives,
on the other token, have recently appeared to try to raise people’s
awareness of this consolidated problem. For instance, the gover-
nment has launched a campaign to combat vulgar catcalling and
groping in public places, and a program from the Instituto Nacio-
nal de las Mujeres (INAMU) on gender-based violence aims to
educate people on the topic and to motivate them to act against it
(Arias, 2016). Nevertheless, these two initiatives do not approach
the perceptions of men towards the issue, so the lack of knowledge
in this eld remains. erefore, unlike the various existent studies
on this issue from women’s perspectives, this literature review en-
compasses positions from studies on the street harassment of wo-
men focusing on men’s theory and perspectives. It also explains
the agreements and disagreements that authors have gotten to in
their work on this controversial though worth-to-investigate topic.
is section follows a chronological organization pattern to give
rise to contrast old theories on street harassment to current ones,
which goes along with the main purpose of the investigation that is
to study the perspective of professional and non-professional mi-
llennial men towards street harassment of women.
Conceptions of Street Harassment over the Years
Since this research aimed to study the perceptions of millennial
men towards the street harassment that women suer, a chrono-
logical review of the conceived denitions of street harassment,
its types, and its perpetrators were key for the investigation. First,
the target population of this study was millennial men, individuals
who reached adulthood around the turn of the 21
st
century. is
means that the millennial men cohort consists of men born be-
tween 1982 and 2004 (Howe & Strauss, 2000). However, since the
population sample surveyed for this research was above 18 years
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because of legal regulations, this research redened the term “mi-
llennial men” to those who were born between 1980 and 1998.
Additionally, the millennial men that this research was interested
in were those who had completed their higher education cycle as
well as those who had not. Second, the evolution of the concept
of street harassment over the years is fundamental to understand
the purpose of this research. Starting from the decade of 1980, Di
Leonardo (1981) claims that street harassment occurs when one
or more strange men accost one or more women in a public place
which is not the women’s worksite, through looks, words, or gestu-
res, forcing her to interact with him (52). Although this denition
resembles many of the traits of the current conception of street
harassment, it does not include the sexually explicit connotation
of the gestures or words. In this respect, the majority of the 1990’s
denitions already point out that sexual aspect as well as the pat-
tern of the accost recurrence. For example, Grant (1993) says that
street harassment occurs when unfamiliar men accost women in
public, on one or more occasions, with language or actions that are
explicitly or implicitly sexual. She asserts that harassment includes
“references to female genitalia, body parts or to sexual activities,
solicitation of sex, or reference by word or action to the target of
the harassment as the object of sexual desire” (Grant, 1993). In
the two more recent decades, the concept of street harassment of
women has “gained” the attributes of being inevitable and an act
of terrorism. Fogg-Davis (2006) states that it is an act of sexual
terrorism, inevitable in essence, as all women know that they will
certainly suer it at some point. Finally, a current denition of the
term of discussion involves the ideas of understanding it as a way
of complimenting and attering women. In addition to that, Va-
lenti (2008) refers to the idea that in current society, men believe
that they are allowed to say anything that they want to women
when they want to, just like they probably did in the past. Ulti-
mately, recent denitions of street harassment categorize the issue
as an insidious form of sexism (Valenti, 2008). e denition of
street harassment has, therefore, evolved over the time.
Denition of Street Harassment Adopted on this Paper
For the purpose of this paper, the denition of street harass-
ment is a compendium of the denitions stated above, those pro-
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vided by specialized organizations such as RAINN which is one of
the largest anti-sexual violence organizations around the world,
and the ones disclosed on the Costa Rica’s law. As of 2016, street
harassment was not typied as a crime of any kind in Costa Rica.
However, the Civil Penal Code in its article 392 states that all obs-
cene words and acts, disrespectful or indecent propositions, gro-
ping and ashing towards people are contraventions of the socia-
lly accepted good customs and are to be punished (Código Penal,
1970). In addition, the Costa Rica Law for Penalization of Violence
Against Women in its article 25 states that there is a punishment
of prison to a person who oends women verbally, aecting their
dignity or decorum, be it that person’s spouse, partner or not (Ley
8559, 2007).
According to RAINN (2016) and aligned with what is stated
in Costa Rica’s laws, street harassment can be dened as the re-
ception of unwanted comments, gestures, or acts in a public space
without people’s consent and that go against people’s social code of
conduct and decency. is is the denition that is used throughout
this paper to refer to street harassment. It diers from the de-
nition of sexual harassment as that refers to all unwanted sexual
behaviors that cause negative eects on the person who receives
them in a work or study environment (Ley 7476, 1995). e types
of street harassment are detailed in the following section.
Types of Street Harassment
In order to understand the perceptions of men towards the
street harassment of women, delving into the dierent categories
and types of the social problem over the years becomes necessary.
In the 1990’s, Heben (1994) categorized street harassment of wo-
men into three groups: least severe, moderately severe, and severe.
In this case, the least severe actions include staring at them, whist-
ling at them, and making politically incorrect comments to them.
Unlike the rst category, the moderately severe group encompas-
ses subtle glimpses of sexually explicit comments. Some examples
of street harassment in this category are sexual insinuations throu-
gh complex rhetoric, comments referencing the submissive condi-
tions of the female gender, and appeals to their body parts using
no sexual vocabulary. e last category comprises the least socially
accepted manifestations of street harassment for the 1990’s as they
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are actions essentially related to the desire of sexual intercourse.
Some of the actions of this category are the explicit reference to a
woman’s body and the request to sexual activities linked to it, acts
such as following them (persecution), touching them against their
will, pinching them, and poking them (Heben, 1994). In the 2010’s
authors no longer resorted to Heben’s categorization system to re-
fer to the types of harassment that women deal with in the streets.
In a study conducted in 2016, the Stop Street Harassment foun-
dation identies dierent manifestations of harassment, and rates
them according to their frequency of occurrence and the serious-
ness of their consequences. e rst actions on the list are a) hon-
king and whistling and b) catcalling (calling out phrases like “hey
baby”, “hey shorty”, and “pssst sounds”). e persistent requests for
a name, number, or date (usually aer being denied) compose the
intermediate level of the rating. Finally, all those actions related to
the desire of establishing sexual intercourse appear at the bottom
of the rate, meaning they are the most damaging and serious of
the manifestations of sexual harassment. Some examples of these
actions are sexist comments both evaluative like “nice legs” and
demanding comments like “look at me, baby”, vulgar gestures with
the face and body, ashing or public masturbation, grabbing and
rubbing genitals against them, persecuting them, and ultimately,
sexually assaulting them (Stop Street Harassment, 2016). To sum
up, over the time, society has categorized expressions of street
harassment dierently, highlighting some and diminishing other.
However, the types of street harassment that are considered for the
purpose of this investigation can be summarized in the way RA-
INN (2016) proposes, which encompasses all the dierent types
that have been mentioned and explained before from the Costa
Rica’s laws and other authors’ contributions:
• Unwanted comments, requests, and demands
• Commenting on physical appearance, such as someone’s
body or the clothing they’re wearing
• Continuing to talk to someone aer they have asked to be
le alone
• Flashing
• Following or stalking
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• Groping
• Intentionally invading personal space or blocking the way
• Persistent requests for someone’s name, number, or other
information
• Public masturbation or touching
• Sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic slurs, or any com-
ments insulting or demeaning an aspect of someone’s iden-
tity
• Showing pornographic images without someone’s consent
• Staring
• Taking a photo of someone without their consent
• Telling someone to smile
• Up-skirting, which is taking a photo up a skirt or dress wi-
thout that person’s permission
• Using a mirror to look up someone’s skirt or dress without
their permission
• Whistling or honking
Causes of Street Harassment
e explanatory theories of the reasons why street harassment
is a consolidated issue in society vary among authors. Some au-
thors highlight the following as causes of street harassment: the
economic dominance of men over women, the perpetuation of
gender stereotypes in society, and the violence as a way of power.
In the case of economic power over women, Schultz (1998) points
out that it is very likely that the street harassment of women is
linked to the fact that the most highly rewarded forms of work
are domains of masculine competence, which may lead to sex-ba-
sed harassment. e perpetuation of gender stereotypes is another
theory that authors like Franke (1997) have claimed as a potential
cause of the issue. He says that society is a system in which fun-
damental gender stereotypes play the role of binary oppositions
between men and women. For example, men are “sexual conque-
rors”, and women are “sexually conquered”, men are “physically
strong” and “women are weak”, which at the end of the day reects
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the possibility that “men’s desire to exploit or dominate women
sexually may or may not be the primary motivation for harassing
women” (Schultz, 1998). Talking about gender roles, the topic of
violence as a way of exerting power over women becomes relevant.
According to a study conducted by the International Labor Orga-
nization in 1992, “sexual harassment is inextricably linked with
power and takes place in societies which oen treat women as sex
objects and second-class citizens.” (International Labor Organi-
zation, 1992). is position reinforces the ideas of Franke (1997)
who suggests that the street harassment of women is a matter of
power possession. In conclusion, some experts claim that the most
evident reason why the street harassment exists is the patriarchal
values that compose most of societies.
e positions of old and new researchers collaborate to unders-
tand the possible causes of the issue. One of the main claims from
“old researchers” (from the 1980’s and the 1990’s) is that all types
of men can be harassers. Gardner (1995) states that public harass-
ment is pervasive, which means that the perpetrators and victims
can be of any age, race, and class. In addition, researchers on the
topic have exposed the men’s underestimation of the consequences
of their harassment acts as a possible cause of the issue. Gardner
(1995) supports this position and says that male reviewers of the
topic have had a biased attitude towards the real implications of
the street harassment:
Street harassment is a phenomenon that has not generally
been viewed by academics, judges, or legislators as a pro-
blem requiring legal redress, either because these mostly
male observers have not noticed the behavior or because
they have considered it trivial and thus not within the pro-
per scope of the law (22).
On the other hand, the positions from new researchers reinfor-
ce the idea that men are overwhelmingly the harassers of women.
ey say that men harass women as a way to prove their masculi-
nity, sometimes using the media as a social model. Recent research
projects like the one that the Stop Street Harassment foundation
has conducted have claimed that men are the most frequent haras-
sers of both women and men. e actual motivations for men to
exert harassment continue to be unclear. Tarrant (2012) says that
they harass as a way to reinforce to themselves and society their
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masculine role:
Our culture repeatedly tells boys and men that one way to
prove their masculinity is by putting someone else down.
is is a form of hyper-masculinity that relies on exerting
power over people who are perceived as less valuable. Ha-
rassment is a way to make that happen (18)
With the inuential appearance and consolidation of the me-
dia, society has found a source to promote the stereotyped mascu-
linity models, which can be one of the reasons why men are street
harassers. For example, since music, TV, and movies showing wo-
men as sexual objects are easily accessible, men may think about
women as sexually available objects. In addition, Tarrant (2012)
continues this line of thought by saying that boys and men learn
through the media that they can access other people’s bodies and
invade the personal space of those who are less powerful. In con-
clusion, both old and recent studies fail at identifying all causes of
the street harassment of women, but they situate men are the most
prone people to perpetrate street harassment towards women.
Millennials and Street Harassment
Very few studies have approached the perceptions of millennial
men towards the issue of street harassment of women, and even
fewer have explored the inuence of a university degree in the
perpetuation of this type of harassment. Some authors agree with
the idea that, for the most part, men ignore the reasons why they
harass women on the streets. According to Naldos et al. (2013),
harassers usually provide excuses which nd no support from a
scientic point of view. For instance, men argue that they do it to
atter women while others assert that women are the ones who
provoke them to “atter them” because of their outts. However,
the School of Statistics of the University of Costa Rica in its pu-
blication “Encuesta Anualidades” in 2015 concludes that women
dislike the “attering compliments” that they receive from men on
the streets, contrary to the traditional perceptions of men (Umaña,
2016). In addition, some studies have considered the perceptions
of men towards women who suer harassment on the streets. e
Stop Street Harassment foundation, through its thorough survey
program on the identication of harassers, states that some men
have shown proactive responses towards the victims and victimi-
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zers (Stop Street Harassment, 2015). e case of Gerardo Cruz, the
Costa Rican millennial man who exposed the street harassment
that a young woman suered in San Jose in 2015, serves as a su-
pport for that proactivity that seems to come from men currently.
Some men believe that they can take actions to stop harassment if
they, for example, confront the harasser, encourage the victim to
speak up, and educate themselves and their peers on the impor-
tance of not perpetuating street harassment (Stop Street Harass-
ment, 2015). In Costa Rica, although men do not lead them, seve-
ral groups are working on campaigns to stop the street harassment
of women: Acción Respeto, Piropos o Acoso CR, Este es mi cuerpo
Cr, Colectivo Furia Rosa, Proyecto Lyra, Activista Independiente Tío
Hugo y Community Psychology are some examples of those cam-
paigns. ese groups work together with the Instituto Nacional
de las Mujeres or Women’s Institute (INAMU) and the Defensoría
de los Habitantes or People’s Defense Institution in order to raise
people’s awareness of this taboo social issue and empower them
to expose the cases to the authorities (Guerrero, 2015). To wrap
up, although some studies on the perceptions of men toward the
street harassment of women exist, they are scarce and, therefore,
do not encompass the interpretations of millennial professional
and non-professional men.
In conclusion, the review of the available literature on the topic
supported the research in dierent ways. It shows that the de-
nitions of street harassment over the years have evolved, and so
have done the conceptions of the dierent types of street harass-
ment. e authors and studies that this paper reviewed diered in
the ndings of the causes that motivate men to harass women. In
this respect, it concluded that very few studies on the perceptions
of millennial men towards the street harassment of women exist
in either Costa Rica or the world. Costa Ricans, in general, are
currently more aware of this social issue, which has led organi-
zations such as INAMU to come up with campaigns to work on
possible solutions. However, the review of the literature pointed
out that those eorts still do not focus on surveying the percep-
tions of men, especially those representing the subjects of study of
this research. erefore, this review reinforced the importance of
the research project as it addresses a real issue which few authors
have approached.
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Methods
is research project focused on examining the perceptions
of professional and non-professional millennial men towards the
street harassment of women in San Pedro, San José, Costa Rica.
For the specicity of this research paper and the lack of available
sources on its exact subject matter, this was conceived as explo-
ratory research. e author resorted to two main primary source
instruments to collect reliable data: the interview to an expert and
the survey (containing open and closed questions) to a male sam-
ple. e application of both instruments (in Spanish) took place
in the surroundings of San Pedro city during the last two weeks
of September 2016. Although millennial men are those who were
born between 1980 and 2000, the respondents of the survey were
only legally adult men between 18 and 36 years old. In total, 60
men responded the survey and 52 of them met the requirements
of the study in terms of the characteristics of the target sample:
heterosexual men who identied themselves as such. e author
interviewed the psychologist Licda. Karla Carrillo Molina who is
also the founder of the campaign “No más acoso callejero.” She
approached the interview’s questions from her experience as an
activist and using positions from the feminist point of view to ex-
plain causes and consequences of this social issue. Regarding the
survey’s results, the analysis of the data consisted in the explana-
tion of ndings, behavioral patterns, and diverse perceptions of
the respondents. For this purpose, the research included tables
and graphs for the analysis of closed questions and textual expla-
nations in the case of the open ones. e research included the
relationship between other authors’ theories and the perceptions
of the survey’s respondents. In the same manner, in the analysis of
the interview instrument, the paper included the relevant respon-
ses of the expert in conjunction with the theory from the literature
review to compare her answers with other investigations.
Results and Discussion
As previous sections of this paper explained, the purpose of the
present research was to examine the perceptions of professional
and non-professional millennial men towards the problem of the
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street harassment of women in San Pedro, San José, Costa Rica.
e results of the data collection showed that both groups of par-
ticipants performed actions of street harassment against women,
and that they were aware of the existence of this problem in socie-
ty but not of its real implications and scope. e following graph
shows the responses to the initial question of the survey, which
aimed at determining how aware millennial men were of situa-
tions of street harassment of women in our society. e blue bars
represent men with a higher academic degree (from now on “the
professionals”), and the red bars represent men without any higher
academic degree (from now on, the “non-professionals”).
F
R P N- M
I Q S
Note. e data are from [Unpublished raw data on perceptions of professional
and non-professional millennial men towards the street harassment of women
in San Pedro, San José, Costa Rica] by Sanabria, 2016.
e responses of the initial question revealed that the percep-
tions of the two groups of men (the professionals and the non-pro-
fessionals) do not dier much in terms of the most frequent acts
of harassment that they have witnessed against women. While the
rst group indicated in 100% of the cases that they had seen men
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
None.
Other .
Masturbation of men in front of w omen.
Flashing or exposure of a man's genitals to women.
Groping of women without their consent.
Following or persecution of women without their consent.
Winking at women as expression of admiration or desire.
Explicit or implicit asking of names and phone numbers.
Comments like “too pretty to be alone”, "I am your man"
Comments about women's legs, butt, or breasts.
Whistling at women expressing admiration or desire.
Catcalling: “adiós, “mami,” “mamacita,” “rica”
Honking at women walking on the streets.
Which of the following actions have you seen men performing against
women in public spaces?
Non-professionals Professionals
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ESTEBAN SANABRIA | Perceptions of Professional
127
honking at women from their vehicles, the second group indicated
with a 98% of the cases that they also had witnessed men catcalling
women and expressing them phrases like “hey baby”, “adiós”, and
“rica”. Some dierences to remark on are that professional men
stated that they had never seen acts of masturbation of men in
front of women while up to 6 people from the non-professional
group stated otherwise. In addition, a man from the professio-
nal group pointed out another kind of street harassment that he
had witnessed, which is the rubbing of the genitals of men against
women in public transportation, especially in the train. In 2014,
users of the train to Cartago identied a man who would constant-
ly rub his penis on standing women’s buttocks, taking advantage
of the movement of the train (Estrada, 2014). Both professional
and non-professional millennial men are fairly evenly aware of the
varied situations of street harassment that women suer.
When answering the rst question, the respondents had not
come to the item about whether they knew what street harassment
meant. Interestingly, several men from both groups ignored the
denition and implications of the concept “street harassment”,
even considering that the survey provided them with it. e fo-
llowing chart summarizes the result of this question:
T
R Q: “D K D
I “S H”
Target sample’s group
Yes, I know the concept
and implications
No, I ignore the concept
and implications
Professionals (men
with a higher academic
degree)
19 6
Non-professionals
(men without a higher
academic degree)
23 4
Note. e data are from [Unpublished raw data on perceptions of professional
and non-professional millennial men towards the street harassment of women
in San Pedro, San José, Costa Rica] by Sanabria, 2016.
Contrary to the researcher’s suppositions, more professional
men than non-professional ones were not aware of the denition
and implications of street harassment. Some of them acknowled-
ged to the researcher that they believed that this concept did not
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have as much of a sexual connotation as the denition provided in
the survey indicated: Street harassment is a form of sexual harass-
ment that consists of receiving unwanted comments, whistles, and
other similar actions from unknown persons in public spaces. Inti-
midating looks, catcalling, inappropriate approaches, rubbing of ge-
nitals on the body of the harassed, exhibitionism (public nudity and
masturbation), and persecution are some types of street harassment.
As an explanation for this surprising result, the psychologist Karla
Carrillo indicated in her interview that no scientic data support
the idea that the younger or more educated men are, the less they
harass women. In other words, in many instances, the professional
men are unaware of the implications and seriousness of this so-
cial issue, especially because universities and their majors do not
encompass Women Studies, and sometimes men’s families do not
talk about this issue either (Carrillo, 2016). e same expert assu-
red that the government of Costa Rica invests very little resources
in the creation of campaigns to ght against the street harassment
of women and in popularizing the existing ones. In the survey,
most participants ignored the existence of current campaigns on
the subject and about the law bill that is currently in the congress.
Clearly, both professional and non-professional millennial men
are still unaware of the concept and implications of the street ha-
rassment of women.
In regard to the unawareness of the concept, implications, and
types of street harassment, and, taking into account that all items
of the question were real ways of street harassment, the following
chart shows the perceptions of professional and non-professional
men towards the actions that they considered as types of street
harassment.
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T
R I: C A Y C T S H A W
Type of street harassment of women
Number of professional
respondents
Number of non-
professional
respondents
1. Honking at women walking on the streets. 12 7
2. Catcalling: “adiós, “mami,” “mamacita,” “rica” 19 23
3. Explicit or implicit asking of names and phone numbers. 7 9
4. Winking at women as an expression of admiration or desire. 11 7
5. Comments about women’s legs, butt, or breasts. 22 26
6. Whistling at women expressing admiration or desire. 20 15
7. Comments like “too pretty to be alone”, “I am your man” 22 19
8. Masturbation of men in front of women. 24 27
9. Flashing or exposure of a man’s genitals to women. 24 27
10. Groping of women without their consent. 25 27
11. Following or persecution of women without their consent. 23 27
12. Other. 1 0
13. None. 0 0
Note. e data are from [Unpublished raw data on perceptions of professional and non-professional millennial men towards the street
harassment of women in San Pedro, San José, Costa Rica] by Sanabria, 2016.
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e results of this item give room to interesting interpreta-
tion. On the one hand, they show that the participants considered
that all the actions that the survey provided were actually types of
the street harassment of women. As Table 2 shows, 100% of the
non-professionals and 98% of the professionals considered that
masturbation in front of women, grabbing and showing of the
men’s genitals in front of women, groping, and persecution are
types of street harassment. Heben (1994) places these types of ha-
rassment in the highest category in terms of seriousness as they
imply an explicit reference to a woman’s body and the request to
sexual activities linked to it. On the other hand, less that the half of
the respondents of both the professional and the non-professional
groups believed that winking at women, glancing them lustfully,
honking from men’s vehicles at them, and asking their names or
numbers without knowing them are not ways of street harassment
(see the yellow highlighted cells on Table 3). e following Ca-
rrillo’s position serves to support and interpret the results of this
item: “because of the patriarchal society in which we live in Costa
Rica, many men do not believe that certain actions they perform
such as complimenting a woman with ‘nice’ words or glancing
them stilly to call their attention are ways of street harassment.”
Also, Carrillo (2016) say that since many women would not speak
up about this social issue in the past, and, rather, they would dis-
miss the comments that they received, men do not consider many
of their actions as types of street harassment. In fact, when asked
“Do you believe that some women overreact towards the street ha-
rassment that men exert on them?” most men from both groups
replied armatively; this perception reinforces the idea of men
not considering certain acts as types of street harassment. e fo-
llowing chart shows the responses to this question:
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F
P M T W S W
O S H T S
Note. e data are from [Unpublished raw data on perceptions of professional
and non-professional millennial men towards the street harassment of women
in San Pedro, San José, Costa Rica] by Sanabria, 2016.
As Figure 2 shows, 16 out of 25 professional respondents and
14 out of 27 non-professional ones indicated that women indeed
overreact towards the situations of street harassment that they live.
is item leads us to conclude that the misinformation of men
about what is and what is not street harassment blurs their ability
to understand the reactions of women towards this social issue.
Two of the research questions of this project aimed at determi-
ning whether professional and non-professional millennial men
harass women on the streets. While 56% of the professional men
stated that they had exerted at least one of the types of the street
harassment of women, 46% of the non-professional men had.
None of the participants indicated having exerted any of the forms
of the “least socially accepted manifestations of street harassment”
(see the review of the literature) such as persecuting them, groping
them against their will, pinching them, or assaulting them (Heben,
1994). e actions that the participants indicated having perfor-
med against women were mostly honking at them from their ve-
hicles, catcalling them like “hey baby”, “adiós” (inciting way to say
hello), and “rica” (juicy), and expressing them comments related
to their bodies like: “nice butt”, and “nice legs”. One of the partici-
pants pointed out that he did not perform any way of harassment
and wrote that he only told them non-obscene “piropos” (compli-
0
5
10
15
20
Yes No
Do you find women genuine about their reactions towards the
street harassment they suffer?
Professionals No n-professiona ls
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ments). However, this is, according to the literature review, just a
way of soening the fact that he is a harasser, as those comments
are most of the times unwanted. In general terms, the survey’s re-
sults showed that millennial men do harass women on the streets.
Finally, in order to answer the research questions about how
professional and non-professional men perceive the problem of
street harassment of women, the following chart presents the per-
ceptions of men towards their role as supposed harassers.
F
P M T T S R H
Note. e data are from [Unpublished raw data on perceptions of professional
and non-professional millennial men towards the street harassment of women
in San Pedro, San José, Costa Rica] by Sanabria, 2016.
Contrary to the expectations of the researcher, these results so-
mehow support the position of Browman & Gardner (1995) who
stated that public harassment is pervasive, which means that all
types of men can be harassers. However, the results failed at pro-
ving that all heterosexual men are harassers, as more than half of
all the respondents indicated not to believe that that statement was
true. ese results also contrast with what Tarrant (2012) states
when he says that men harass women on the streets as a way to pro-
ve their masculinity. Only 3 out of 25 professional men and only 1
out of 27 non-professional men considered this position as valid.
What is clear here is the evenness in the responses of professional
and non-professional men to the question of whether men harass
a woman more when their friends are around than when they are
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
All h eterosexual men harass women
at least once in their lives on the
streets
The perpetuation of street
harassments of wom en makes men
be seen as "more masculine" or
"more manly"
Men harass wome n on the streets
more when they are accompanied
by their male friends and peers
Perception of men towards their role as supposed harassers
Professionals No n-professionals
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ESTEBAN SANABRIA | Perceptions of Professional
133
on their own. Both groups’ opinions were armative, which the
researcher expected as a result. Although these perceptions are not
included in the chart, the surveyed men also showed to be empa-
thic with women in the sense that they recognized that women,
when harassed, should feel bad and outraged. For this purpose,
the survey included two open questions, which were: “How do you
believe women feel aer being street harassed by men?” and “How do
you interpret the scenario of a man helping a woman who is being
harassed (i.e. by exposing the harasser)?” e answers to the rst
question were positive as most of the respondents recognized that
women do not enjoy any kind of harassment and that, in contrast,
they feel uncomfortable, assaulted, scared, upset, and insecure. In
the second question, the participants indicated that helping out
women when they are harassed is a fair action, and that everyone
should do it. Interestingly, none of the respondents associated this
help with the negative consequences that helping men can face,
just as Gerardo Cruz did. In conclusion, this research showed that
not all heterosexual men are harassers, and that although they
know the harm that harassment causes to women, they knowingly
perpetuate this way of violence.
e results of the data collection instruments clearly po-
sition professional and non-professional men as perpetrators of
street harassment. As Carrillo (2016) exposed, there seems not to
be revealing relationships between age or education and the fact
of harassing women on the streets. Most respondents assured to
have witnessed most types of the street harassment of women, but
not all of them agreed with the categorization of those actions as
actual portrayals of street harassment. e research found a clear
tendency of men not identifying as harassment actions like catca-
lling women, asking their names on the street, or honking at them
from vehicles. ey seem to consider as types of street harassment
mainly the actions with explicit sexual connotations such as gro-
ping, persecution, and assault. Interestingly, many of these mi-
llennial men indicated to have been victims of street harassment
from women, which demysties the idea of women being the only
population that is street harassed. To sum up, the results of the
instruments revealed that both professional and non-professional
millennial men harass women, and that some of these men had
also been harassed. In addition, men’s empathy towards women
who suer harassment is ambiguous.
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Conclusions and Recommendations
e present study showed that the street harassment of women
represents an issue in Costa Rica. e misinformation that peo-
ple have obtained regarding what street harassment means is alar-
ming, and it should be addressed not by studying the victims only,
but the harassers as well. is research’s results make us reckon
that the solution for this social issue may be nearer than we be-
lieve: at home. e hypothesis of the investigation positioned the
academic educational level as a possible factor that dierentiates
the perpetrators of street harassment, positioning millennial pro-
fessional men as less prone to exert street harassment of women
in comparison to non-professional men. Nonetheless, the results
show that this factor is not determinant to claim this as both pro-
fessional and non-professional millennial men were found to be
equally prone to perpetrate this act. is evidences that age and
educational level are not reliable factors to exempting men from
the perpetration of street harassment. One may believe that Costa
Rican authorities should approach this recurrent issue with eec-
tive tools and strategies, but the reality shows otherwise. Not even
one of the studies that this research included was Costa Rican,
which reects that the country may be addressing the issue by tr-
ying to raise awareness in people, but not by working directly with
the harassers. is research concluded that even the actual haras-
sers ignore why they harass, exactly; they seem to be following
the patriarchal societal pattern that has been present for decades.
eir ignorance, however, does not grant them the permission to
violent the rights of women, but the status quo will never change
if these men are not correctly educated. Honking at women on the
streets, catcalling them, and telling them piropos (catcalls) are ac-
tions that, even though they are types of harassment, men consider
them compliments for women. Is this entirely men’s fault? It is, in
part. However, we will not come far if the authorities do not start
producing scientic research that helps us ll the gaps that even
experts on the subject matter have about whether men are biolo-
gical harassers (as some men believe) and if educational programs
are eective tools in elementary school, high school, and college
for diminishing this issue.
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Appendices
Appendix A
Questionnaire to Professional and Non-professional
Millennial Men
Presentación: Me encuentro realizando un estudio sobre la percepción de los
hombres nacidos entre 1980 y 1998, sobre el “acoso callejero” que viven las mu-
jeres en los alrededores de San Pedro de Montes de Oca.
Agradezco mucho su colaboración al llenar esta encuesta, la cual es absoluta-
mente condencial y sus resultados se utilizarán para nes académicos sola-
mente. Le tomará de 5 a 10 minutos completarla.
Instrucciones: Por favor marque con una equis el paréntesis que corresponde a
su respuesta. En las preguntas de respuesta corta, escriba con sus propias palabras
lo que se le solicita.
Datos generales del encuestado
Género: ( ) Masculino ( ) Femenino ( ) Otro
Rango de edad: ( ) 18 – 21 años ( ) 22 – 28 años ( ) 29 – 36 años ( )
más de 36
Preferencia sexual: ( ) Heterosexual ( ) Homosexual ( ) Bisexual ( )
Otro
Escolaridad:
( ) Primaria completa ( ) Secundaria completa ( ) Universitaria
completa
( ) Primaria incompleta ( ) Secundaria incompleta ( ) Universitaria
incompleta
1- ¿Cuáles de las siguientes acciones ha presenciado usted por parte de hombres
hacia mujeres en espacios públicos? (Marque con una equis las casillas que
correspondan)
1- Silbidos que indican admiración o deseo.
2- Sonido de la bocina (“pito”) del vehículo al pasar cerca de ellas.
3- Exclamación de frases o palabras como “adiós, mi amor”, “mamac-
i t a”, “ r i c a”.
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4- Solicitudes de sus nombres, números de teléfono o invitaciones
a salir.
5- Exclamación de comentarios como “usted necesita un hombre
como yo”, “tan bonita y tan sola”, otros.
6- Guiño de ojos indicando admiración o deseo.
7- Tocamiento de alguna parte del cuerpo de ellas.
8- Persecución hacia ellas en las calles o sitios públicos.
9- Comentarios sobre alguna parte de sus cuerpos como: “bonitas
piernas, linda cara, bonito trasero” o sus equivalentes en expre-
siones más obscenas.
10- Actos de muestra o agarre de las partes íntimas del hombre hacia
ellas.
11- Actos de masturbación frente a ellas.
12- Otras ¿Cuáles? _______________________________________
________
13- Ninguna
2- ¿Cuáles de las siguientes acciones ha ejercido usted hacia mujeres en
espacios públicos? (Marque con una equis las casillas que correspondan)
1- Silbidos indicando admiración o deseo.
2- Sonido de la bocina (“pito”) del vehículo al pasar cerca de ellas.
3- Exclamación en voz alta o baja de frases como “adiós”, “mamac-
ita”, “rica”.
4- Solicitudes de sus nombres, números de teléfono o invitación a
salir.
5- Exclamación de comentarios como “usted necesita un hombre
como yo”, “tan bonita y tan sola”, otros.
6- Guiño de ojos indicando admiración o deseo.
7- Tocamiento de alguna parte del cuerpo de ellas.
8- Persecución hacia ellas en las calles o sitios públicos.
9- Comentarios sobre alguna parte de sus cuerpos como: “bonitas
piernas, linda cara, bonito trasero” o sus equivalentes en expre-
siones más obscenas.
10- Actos de muestra o agarre de sus partes íntimas hacia ellas.
11- Actos de masturbación frente a ellas.
12- Otras ¿Cuáles? ______________________________________
________
13- Ninguna
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3- Por favor lea la siguiente denición de “acoso callejero”
El acoso callejero es una forma deacoso sexual que consiste en recibir co-
mentarios indeseados, silbidos y otras acciones similares de personas extrañas
o conocidas en espacios públicos. Miradas intimidantes, palabras obscenas,
acercamientos inapropiados, agarrones, presión de genitales sobre el cuerpo,
exhibicionismo (desnudez y masturbación pública) y persecución son algunas
formas de acoso callejero.
¿Conocía usted la denición de acoso callejero y sus tipos?
( ) Sí ( ) No
4- Seleccione aquellas acciones que usted considera formas de acoso callejero
hacia las mujeres:
1- Silbidos indicando admiración o deseo.
2- Sonido de la bocina (“pito”) del vehículo al pasar cerca de
ellas.
3- Exclamación en voz alta o baja de frases como “adiós”,
“mamacita”, “rica”.
4- Solicitudes de sus nombres, números de teléfono o in-
vitación a salir.
5- Exclamación de comentarios como “usted necesita un
hombre como yo”, “tan bonita y tan sola”, otros.
6- Guiño de ojos indicando admiración o deseo.
7- Tocamiento de alguna parte del cuerpo de ellas.
8- Persecución hacia ellas en las calles o sitios públicos.
9- Comentarios sobre alguna parte de sus cuerpos como: “bo-
nitas piernas, linda cara, bonito trasero” o sus equivalentes
en expresiones más obscenas.
10- Actos de muestra o agarre de sus partes íntimas hacia ellas.
11- Actos de masturbación frente a ellas.
12- Otras ¿Cuáles? __________________________________
_______________
13- Ninguna
5- ¿Cuáles de estas acciones han ejercido las mujeres hacia usted en espacios
públicos? (Marque con una equis las casillas que correspondan)
1- Silbidos indicando admiración o deseo.
2- Sonido de la bocina (“pito”) del vehículo al pasar cerca
de usted.
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3- Exclamación en voz alta o baja de frases como “adiós”, “pa-
pito”, “rico”.
4- Solicitudes de su nombre, número de teléfono o invitación
a salir.
5- Exclamación de comentarios como “usted necesita una
mujer como yo”, “tan guapo y tan solo”, otros.
6- Guiño de ojos indicando admiración o deseo.
7- Tocamiento de alguna parte de su cuerpo por parte de el-
las.
8- Persecución hacia usted en las calles o sitios públicos.
9- Comentarios sobre alguna parte de sus cuerpos como:
“bonitas piernas, linda cara, bonito trasero” o sus equiv-
alentes en expresiones más obscenas.
10- Actos de muestra o agarre de las partes íntimas de la mujer
hacia usted.
11- Actos de masturbación frente a usted.
12- Otras ¿Cuáles? _________________________________
________________
13- Ninguna (pase a la pregunta 7)
6- Describa cómo piensa usted que se sienten las mujeres después de haber ex-
perimentado algún tipo de acoso callejero: _________________________
7- ¿Considera usted que las mujeres en su mayoría temen denunciar el acoso
callejero?
( ) Sí ¿Por qué? ____________________________________________
( ) No
8- ¿Considera usted que algunas mujeres exageran en cuanto a sus reacciones y
críticas hacia el acoso callejero que los hombres ejercen sobre ellas?
( ) Sí ( ) No
9- ¿Cree usted que todos los hombres heterosexuales ejercen acoso callejero
hacia las mujeres en algún momento de sus vidas?
( ) Sí ( ) No
10- ¿Cree usted que el ejercer acoso callejero hace ver a los hombres “más
hombres” o “más masculinos” ante los ojos de la sociedad?
( ) Sí ( ) No
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11- ¿Cree usted que los hombres que ejercen acoso callejero hacia mujeres lo
hacen más frecuentemente cuando están en compañía de sus amigos o
compañeros?
( ) Sí ( ) No
12- ¿Cree usted que el acoso callejero es un problema signicativo en la sociedad
costarricense?
( ) Sí ( ) No
13- ¿Conoce usted alguna campaña actual en Costa Rica que busque frenar el
acoso callejero hacia las mujeres?
( ) Sí ¿Cuál es el nombre de la campaña?: ______________________________
( ) No
14- ¿Considera usted que el acoso callejero hacia las mujeres fomenta la
desigualdad de los sexos en la población?
( ) Sí ( ) No
15- 15- ¿Cómo interpreta usted el hecho de que un hombre ayude a una
mujer víctima de acoso callejero? Ejemplo: mediante reclamo al acosador o
ayudarla con la denuncia. __________________________
16- ¿Sabía usted que existe en Costa Rica un proyecto de ley que busca penalizar
el acoso callejero hacia hombres y mujeres?
( ) Sí ( ) No
Muchas gracias por su tiempo y colaboración.
Appendix B
Interview to Licda. Karla Carrillo, psychologist and founder of
“No más acoso callejero”
Presentación: Me encuentro realizando un estudio sobre la percepción de los
hombres nacidos entre 1980 y el 2000, sobre el “acoso callejero” que viven las
mujeres en los alrededores de San Pedro de Montes de Oca.
Agradezco mucho su colaboración al participar en esta entrevista, cuya infor-
mación se utilizará para nes académicos solamente.
Datos generales del entrevistado
Nombre completo: ____________________________________________
Género: ( ) Masculino ( ) Femenino ( ) Otro
InterSedes, ISSN 2215-2458, Volumen 23, Número 48,
Julio-Diciembre, 2022, pp. 115–142 (Artículo).
INTERSEDES |
142
Profesión y cargo: _____________________________________________
Rango de edad: ( ) 18 – 21 años ( ) 22 – 28 años ( ) 29 – 36 años ( )
más de 36 ( )
Instrucciones: Por favor provea las respuestas que se le solicitan en cada ítem.
Esta entrevista puede tomar aproximadamente 30 minutos en completarse.
1- ¿Qué se debe entender por acoso callejero hacia las mujeres? __________
____________________________________________________________
___________
2- ¿Qué importancia, desde su perspectiva, le está prestando el Estado
costarricense al tema de acoso callejero hacia las mujeres? ____________
____________________________________________________________
_________
3- ¿Cuáles podrían ser las causas de que los hombres acosen a las mujeres en
lugares públicos? ¿Qué opinión tiene usted de la teoría de que “todos los
hombres son acosadores por naturaleza”? ___________________________
______________________________________________________
4- ¿Considera relevante que en el país se realicen estudios sobre la percepción
de los hombres acerca del acoso callejero hacia las mujeres? ¿Por qué sí o por
qué no? _____________________________________________________
____________________________
5- ¿Conoce usted de investigaciones que se hayan realizado en el país sobre la
percepción de los hombres acerca del acoso callejero hacia las mujeres? Si
sí, ¿Cuáles? __________________________________________________
_______________________________
6- ¿Qué relación podría existir entre la edad de los hombres y su tendencia a
acosar a las mujeres? ___________________________________________
______________________________________
7- ¿Qué relación podría existir entre la escolaridad de los hombres y su
tendencia a acosar a las mujeres? _________________________________
________________________________________________
8- ¿Qué campañas están vigentes en el país para luchar contra el acoso callejero?
¿Cuáles de ellas incluyen la participación de hombres mileniales (de edades
entre 18 y 36 años)? ____________________________________________
_____________________________________
9- ¿Conoce la labor de las Ocinas de Equidad de Género de las
municipalidades? ¿Estarán estas entidades ayudando a concientizar a los
hombres sobre el acoso callejero? _________________________________
________________________________________________
10- Finalmente, ¿Considera que los hombres mileniales (de edades entre 18 y
36 años) están tomando acciones positivas para frenar el acoso callejero y
ejercer masculinidades menos opresoras? Por favor, comente. ___________
_______________________________
