Sex and Honor in the Courtroom: El Salvador, 1920s-1950s

• In Event: Jurisprudencia, Derehos Humanos y Género I

Abstract

In the 1920s, civilian governments in El Salvador at times embraced Liberal ideas regarding sex, honor and the law, and explored de-criminalizing prostitution, even as crimes of honor such as rapto and estupro (kidnapping and seduction), and the failure to prosecute domestic abuse or rape remained common. From the 1930s to the 1950s, Salvadoran military regimes employed a very different language, and repeatedly promised to use state power to reinforce the family and patriarchal authority, in order to correct the supposed failures of these civilian governments. In reality, local conditions continued to primarily shape the way that both public and private sex and gender relations were legislated and policed. Through an examination and comparison of criminal court records from several departments this essay looks at the deep continuities in the legislation of sex and honor, but also the slow changes, all of which bear limited direct relationship to regime change at the national level. Instead, crimes of honor in the courtroom were prevalent into the 1940s, and domestic violence and rape remained under-prosecuted regardless of geography or regime. After initial investigations, regional varieties appear to be much more a function of economic development and urban-rural differences, than national political shifts, or even local political decisions.

Author

• Aldo V Garcia Guevara, Worcester State University