The criminalization of rape in Ecuadorian criminal laws: problematization based on a gender study

Abstract

The present article works with the definition provided by Joan W. Scott (1996) on gender, relating it with the ways in which rape has been historically typified in the Ecuadorian criminal laws. After an introduction that problematizes the exercise of subject construction and the role of the normative codes in it, we proceed to study the definition of Scott, and its two propositions. The first one has four elements, which are used as a frame of reference to analyze the diachronic development of the criminal types of rape. It is argued that the criminalization of homosexuality, including consensual relations between adults, served the national construction project. The work then calls into question the binary limitations built around masculinized victimizers and feminized victims, something that is challenged by different studies on the subject, and which serves to address the second proposition of Scott’s definition. Finally, brief conclusions are given