Government Responses to Femicides in Latin America : A comparative case study of five Latin American countries

Abstract: Worldwide, women face gender-based violence daily. Gender-based violence constitutes a growing problem in societies worldwide, and one in three women globally has experienced some sort of intimate partner violence, which is the most common form of gender-based violence. Femicides are the worst form of gender-based violence with a fatal outcome, and an issue of human rights, developmental issue, health issue, and societal issue. Latin America is the regions with one of the highest femicide rates in the world, and that is one reason for why the regions was chosen. There is a wide range of research done on the subject of femicides, however there is a scarcity on the subject of Latin American government responses and legislations, and how these impact the femicide rates in the region. This thesis will examine how government responses affect femicide rates in five selected countries; Costa Rica, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico. The study will be a qualitative comparative multi-case desk study analyzed through an abductive approach. The theory applied will be the social inclusion and exclusion theory to understand if policies are inclusive or exclusive, and if the nature of the legislations have an impact on the femicide rates. The main underlying causes of femicides are impunity, lack of political will, funding, and the machismo culture. The analysis suggests that the current femicide legislations are not of appropriate nature to curb femicides as they do not tackle the underlying causes of it.