a. Homicides: A comparative
analysis in North America, Europe, and Latin America
Western Criminal Justice systems tend to
penalize crimes against life with severe sanctions and to discriminate among
intentional and non intentional culpable homicides. My research project
examines the common and convergent features of the criminalization of homicides
in common law and civil law criminal justice systems. I am looking at the
convergence phenomenon of these two systems to extract –under a comparative
methodology- their salient common features. The fundamental hypothesis of this
project is that despite the differences between common law, particularly in the
US and Canada, and civil law, especially in Latin America and Europe, the
treatment of the essential features of crimes against life in both common law
and civil law jurisdictions has been remarkably similar, due to their common
Western philosophy, secular objectives, and similar criminal policy objectives.
This research program has already resulted in the publication of an
article in the University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review.
b. Sexual offences: Time for
a new paradigm
In the past thirty years, the rape law reform
movement has profoundly changed rape and other sexual abuse criminal offences.
However, these reforms have failed to produce a substantial change in the way
the Criminal Justice systems treat victims of sexual assault, and it has failed
to deter the commission of rape.
The purpose of this research program is to analyze
the product of this reform movement in Canada, some US states –New York,
Florida, and California- and selected Latin American jurisdictions. Both in
North America and in Latin America these reforms are the product of a Crime
Control agenda and pressure from feminist groups, which failed to produce
significant an adequate response to rape and gender equality in sexual
relations. The pivotal hypothesis of this research project is that despite the
importance of these reforms, they do not adequately offer a solution to the
prevention and treatment of sexual abuse, particularly male sexual abuse
against women. The research project will conclude by offering some suggestions
for a much needed new wave of sex assault reform agenda.
This research project is framed within Feminist Criminology and Feminist
Jurisprudence’s views on the way Criminal Law deals with sex offences.