DC Accepted Papers Paper:
The Role of a Weak Rule of Law in Rising Violence Against Women in Mexico
*Names in bold indicate Presenter
Corruption and violence have been the main threats for Mexicans during the last decade. Violence has many facets, being gender-based violence on of the most alarming ones. Since 2011, women homicides have increased by 30%. When the increase is analyzed throughout the country, there are significant differences across the 32 states. The same happens when corruption data is analyzed. Some states have very high levels of perception of corruption, while in some of them citizens do not perceive corruption overall neither within public institutions. The objective of this paper is to analyze the possible relationship between violence against women and corruption. The analysis is driven by two main channels: (1) corruption weakening the institutional framework and diversifying crime activities, and (2) impunity and corruption fostering criminal activities because it is likely that there will not be consequences. Preliminary results show there might be a relationship between corruption and violence against women. Nevertheless, it is also clear that the study of a possible relationship between gender-based violence and corruption is complicated since both are underreported topics. The lack of accurate data might be a challenge in achieving accurate results, but it is also a lesson about areas that need to be improved so citizens feel more comfortable talking about both problems. By providing a different perspective of the problem, this thesis can be utilized to reframe the debate around gender-based violence in Mexico. The objective is to raise awareness about the nature of the problem, and acknowledge that is not an independent challenge, but is related to other issues that probably need to be analyzed deeper in order to identify spillover effects that are generating chaos in other areas.
