CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter presents a synthesis of previous studies, and literature related to the present
study for further understanding.

Street harassment or catcalling is now a crime in the Philippines. Former President

Rodrigo Duterte signed the “Safe Spaces Act” also known as the “Bawal Bastos Law” or
Republic act no. 11313 on April 17,2019. It covers all forms of gender-based sexual harassment
that are being committed in public spaces such as educational or training institutions, workplace
and even online space.

This study was conducted to know more about the experiences, impact and coping
strategies of people that experienced street harassment. The researchers gathered information
from various sources that are both foreign and local literature and studies.

Related Literature
Foreign

Street harassment is a type of sexual harassment that can be done in different public
spaces and it can be verbal like stating offensive lines to someone such as “ hi sexy” , “ psst!
pogi 150” and “ can I get your number?” repeatedly, whistle blowing, inappropriate jokes and
teasing and nonverbal like invading someone’s personal space, stalking and sexual gestures.
Street harassment is a pervasive form of violence regardless of gender but most of the victims
are women, and it can happen anytime. This type of violence is alarming since it’s now become
part of others’ lives and it’s becoming normal, anyone can be affected by this unstoppable
spread of harassment (Adhikari, A. and Husain, A.,2021).
People that live in a developing countries or places are usually experience street
harassment when they are in public places such as markets and shopping areas (Adur and Jha,
2018). The widespread of this violence needs more of attention for the reason that most of the
victims are afraid to be alone in public places as this kind of harassment can happen multiple
times. According to Mellgren et al. (2018) Though this harassment have become normalized,it
is still results in an increased feel of fear, anxiety, stress and lowered self-esteem to others. It
even affects the behavior of the victims such as being not comfortable in public places and
feeling unsafe.
It is a big disturbance on their activities and will reflect to their performance on their daily
living such as work matter or school matter, may it be daytime or nighttime, male or female,
young or old, anyone can be a victim of street harassment. Although people have been
explored the concept of street harassment, it is still lacking in terms of ways and solutions that
can end this kind of violence and know that it is often experienced by many. Thus, the UN
Women (n.d), stated that this kind of violence especially the sexual harassment in public spaces
has been recognized as a human right violation yet it remains a largely ignored issue as
countries have a few laws and policies related to street harassment in order to prevent and
address this matter.
The victims of street harassment have different stories to tell, thus, the researchers believe
that it can be an eye-opener to others. According to Tong, C. et al. (2018), Storytelling is an
effective way to deliver information and knowledge, thus, enhances the understanding. To know
and to understand the different experiences of the victims, others can be more aware and
concern about street harassment that it can be an eye-opener to them so this kind of violence
can be prevented.
While other victims are not open to share their experiences, this is because they are not
aware about what exactly a street harassment covers. In the study of Mellgren et al. (2018) it
shows that 98.5 percent of the victims stated that they did not report the incident to the police,
this is because they do not see the crime as something serious or the victims think that the
perpetrators meant no harm to them and this resulted to normalization that this is part of
women’s life.
In the study of Naesgård, E. (2019) concludes that there is a wish for a new or change in
already existing laws regarding to street harassment or catcalling since the other victims are not
aware of the extent of street harassment and how to know if they are being harassed by a
perpetrator.

Local