Sexual Violence in Costa Rica: A Progressive Country with Regressive Gender Policies

2022 September 1

Article regarding gender violence in Costa Rica. It concerns mostly biological women, but mentions issues like 8th place for countries with the highest rape rate, and sexual violence happening every 80 minutes.

Quotes: 

“In theory, Costa Rica currently has the laws in place to protect women against sexual violence and femicide. Nonetheless, as a culture heavily influenced by machismo, sexual violence and femicide continues to prevail in Costa Rican society. Specifically, the way machista ideologies are interwoven into the laws protects abusers rather than survivors, making prosecutions and convictions less likely”.

“In 2016, 88% of the cases filed for violence against women were not prosecuted. In 2018, there were a total of 27 femicides, but only 10 convictions under the femicide law. Regarding sexual violence, there was a clear lack of prosecution and accountability. In 2019, there were 12,348 reports of sexual violence including rape, sexual relationships with minors, pornography distribution, and sexual abuse of women over eighteen. Nonetheless, there were only 1,669 sentences, setting a conviction rate of 14%”.

Article in English:

https://minnjil.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Gretzinger_v31_i2_157_185.pdf