JUSTICE AFTER THE VIOLENCE

1. JUSTICE AFTER THE VIOLENCE
AN ASSESSMENT OF PERUVIAN
LEGAL PROTECTIONS FOR VICTIMS
OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
ELIM SHANKO

2. Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Sinthia Tenorio Ochoa, sister of Maribel, for allowing me to be part of her story. I have been
privileged to walk alongside her as she continues to seek justice on behalf of her sister. Sinthia modeled grace and
faithfulness to me, in a time when it was hardest to be graceful to those who hurt her and faithful to a God who seems
to have abandoned her in suffering. Sinthia has given me the gift of friendship, taught me about redeeming love and
challenged me to redeem the sacredness of those who have hurt me most. She waits in radical hope for the unseen to
be seen, she remains in pregnant expectation that justice will arrive and her story will be heard.

3. Introduction
This research was conducted in the city of Huamanga, in the province of Ayacucho, Peru. The country’s toxic problem with femicides
has attracted international attention over the years; ranging from protests in the streets of Lima, to the advocacy of 2017’s Miss Peru
candidates. Femicide has been largely defined as, “the intentional killing of females by males, uniquely because they are females.”
Originally coined by feminist author, Diana Russell, the word drew attention to one of several human rights violations committed
against women, particularly because of their gender, and has now translated into a term very commonly recognizedwithin the Latin
American Feminist movements, as it attempts to remedy the destructive culture of machismo.

6. Graph A represents the population distribution in Peruvian cities with the highest (historically recorded) rates of violence against women.
According to the graph, 0.4% of Peruvians currently live in the province of Ayacucho. Graph B represents the percentage distribution of reported
femicides- both successful and unsucccesful- based on location of victims. The data shows that larger cities, like Lima, represent the majority of reported
instances of femicide, although the ratio is still slightly inflated, Lima’s high population percentage (23.8%) explains why it remains the number one city
when it comes to femicide representation. Between 2009 and 2017 victims of femicide in Lima represented an average of 36.39% of the total population
of femicide victims of Peru. This number, although inflated, only has a disproportionate ratio of 1:1.52, meaning the percentage of victims of femicide from
Lima is only 1.52 times disproportionately higher than the total Peruvian population represented in that city. Ayacucho however, is a different case. As the
city with the second smallest population, of cities with highest rates of femicide, its annual number of victims of femicide are highly disproportionate to
the city’s total population.

7. These data lead us to believe that there is something unique about the circumstances of
women in Ayacucho that make them more vulnerable to the problem of femicide than the
majority of other geographic areas in Peru.

8. Hypothesis
The three hypotheses for this paper are, Hypothesis A: The legal protections provided by the Peruvian
government insufficiently address the topic of violence against women, and are inefficiently implemented and
resourced. Hypothesis B: The legal protections provided by the Peruvian government sufficiently address the topic of
violence against women but are inefficiently implemented and resourced. Hypothesis C: The legal protections provided
by the Peruvian government sufficiently address the topic of violence against women and are efficiently implemented
and resourced.

9. Methodology
This research was conducted through qualitative and quantitative means. I conducted several interviews with
community representatives, the family of the victim (relevant to this case study) and professionals in the field of
violence against women. I also combined data on violence in the region and the country, dating back to 2001. Through
a combination of these tools I was able to draft a living document that not only represents the facts and numbers but
also how it plays out in the lives of Peru’s most vulnerable women.

10. Results
Through this study, Hypothesis B was most easily defended and reiterated that the legal protections provided by the Peruvian government sufficiently
address the topic of violence against women but are inefficiently implemented and resourced.
t is clear that the law has created several safety-nets for vulnerable women to not fall susceptible to acts of violence. These range from preventative care,
physical protection and safehouses, psychological and physical recovery, and lastly economic and relational recovery to allow victims to have smoother
transitions back into society. It is important to note that the effectiveness of domestic violence prevention and recovery is the marriage between both the
social and psychological safety nets put in place by the law and the police. These two parts of the law 30364 need one another to effectively combat the
epidemic of violence against women. Unfortunately, the implementation of the law was virtually non-existent and allowed several injustices to occur that
went against legal mandates but if they had been carried out to their fullest extent, they stood a chance to have eventually saved her life.

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12. Thank You!
If you wish to know more about the story of Maribel, follow this link to a short documentary on
her story:
https://www.facebook.com/pazyesperanzaperu/videos/10156122227013794/