What is Gender Violence

Femicide, or feminicide as it is known in some Latin American jurisdictions, is the murder of a woman because of her gender. National and international regulations agree that this constitutes a hate crime, rather one of habitual violence since femicide is motivated by more complex factors than those of mere physical assault. Violence has become a social problem that has changed the dynamics of the family and associated elements, leading to implications in the psychological, personal, and social spheres, among others. With this perspective, the study carried out a normative analysis of the current situation in Ecuador following the separate classification of the crime of femicide in the General Organic Penal Code (GOPC). The research drew heavily on interviews with active members of Ecuadorian legal institutions in order to build a taxonomy of inconsistencies that determine the reasons for the increase in these murders after the change to the law, at the same time as the stiffening of the state's resolve to prevent them.