Most reports of sexual harassment on the street in Utrecht & Rotterdam

Last year, the most reports of sexual harassment on the street happened in Utrecht and Rotterdam. The two cities stand head and shoulders above the other municipalities that have reporting points for this harassment, according to a survey among these municipalities by NPO Radio 1 program Het Misdaadbureu.

In all cities, the victims are primarily women, with a few men from the LGBQIA+ community also falling victim to sexual harassment on the street. The perpetrators are almost exclusively men. The victims report men catcalling them, whistling at them, chasing or following them, or blocking their way.

Last year, there were 284 reports of sexual harassment on the street in Utrecht. The reports came from all Utrecht neighborhoods. In Rotterdam, there were 276 reports, mainly from places where many people gather, like public transport hubs, parks, squares, and shopping centers. Both cities have extensive public campaigns on sexual harassment on the street underway, which may be why they received so many reports.

Breda is in a distant third place with 99 reports, mostly from women. The few men who called the reporting point were homosexual or reporting on someone else’s behalf. The Almere reporting point got 67 reports, and Alkmaar got 34. Tilburg and Dordrecht both got 27 reports, and Arnehm and Enschede got a joint 32.

The Hague only opened its hotline at the end of 2022, so it could not give any representative figures on street harassment yet. But in the past year, the city worked with stewards who addressed people harassing others in crowded spots and over busy weekends. These stewards registered 138 cases of sexual harassment on the street last year.

Amsterdam doesn’t have a hotline for sexual harassment on the street. But a recent study showed that three-quarters of young women in the capital suffer from street harassment.

A national study early this year found that 83 percent of girls in the Netherlands have been sexually harassed on the street.