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Many women have had to experience catcalling before (symbol picture)
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It is about sexual intrusiveness without physical contact, including harassment through pictures or videos of sexual content: Many people, especially women, have been victims of so-called catcallings in public spaces or on the Internet.
This is the result of an online survey by the Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony, the results of which are available to SPIEGEL.
The survey examined the phenomenon for Germany for the first time.
Of 3,908 respondents - most of them women - a good 90 percent said that they had been rated for their appearance in the three months prior to the survey.
More than half had sex insults, sexual advances, sexist gossip, and suggestive remarks.
Even if there is no physical contact, catcalling should not be played down, says criminologist Laura-Romina Goede, co-author of the study.
Many respondents suffered from the consequences.
More than half of the respondents said that they had become more anxious as a result of their experience with catcalling.
40 percent said they avoided certain locations because of catcalling.
And eight percent said they changed their style of clothing.
Catcalling is so far neither a separate criminal offense nor an administrative offense in Germany.
84 percent of those questioned argue that it should be sanctioned in the future.
Most are for a fine or penalty.
Last year, the lawyer Anja Schmidt advocated a law against catcalling in relation to SPIEGEL, even if some statements could already be punished as insults today.
"It would be clearer if we had a verbal sexual harassment crime," she said.
The debate about catcalling in Germany had attracted more attention mainly through a petition by the student Antonia Quell.
Under the title "IT IS 2020. CATCALLING SHOULD BE PUNISHED", almost 70,000 votes were collected.
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