According to a report delivered by the Institution of Domestic Violence against Women and Access to Justice of the Judiciary, last year there were less obscene acts but more disrespectful proposals to women.
While in 2014 Contraventional Courts reported 5,457 cases of word or obscene acts, in 2015, those cases decreased by thousand. On the contrary, disrespectful proposals increased: they went from 1562 to 2638 contraventions.
Other complaints included molestations (26 cases), in which women were the most common victims, and exhibitionism (200 cases).
Street harassment is any behavior with explicit or implicit sexual connotation. It comes from an stranger, it takes place in public spaces and it has the potential to cause discomfort in the affected person. Since it is an undesirable practice, it is a kind of violence that generates a negative, psychological impact on the victim.
Recently , the National Institute for Women (INAMU), the Ombudsman and the Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MOPT), launched a campaign to encourage users of buses in the capital city to recognize and report cases of harassment in public spaces.
Ibelis Velasco, from the Department of Gender Violence of the INAMU, explained that currently there is not a punishment for this kind of aggression, but there are fines: a person must pay fines that go from 5 to 30 days if he or she is in a public or private place, and starts uttering obscene words or executes obscene acts, gestures, attitudes or exhibits in an offensive way.