QCOSTARICA — Increased media coverage, along with the disclosing details of femicides, could inspire others to imitate
This is what Randall Zúñiga, director of the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ), considered in the face of a string of murders of women at the hands of their partners or ex-partners, which captured national attention between March and June.
For his argument, Zúñiga recalled that in the Champions League soccer games, a person jumped into the field and cameras were him. However, they stopped doing it because the cases began to multiply, motivating others to do it, to have their “15 minutes of fame.”
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Zúñiga is clear that it has not been scientifically studied, but it is a situation that could be occurring in Costa Rica.
“The number of femicides this year, compared to last year, is lower, but the fact that there was so much media coverage about some cases, could generate or motivate others to do something very similar, so we have to be cautious about what is useful public information and what is already some type of exacerbated morbidity that could generate this type of behavior in people,” Zúñiga explained.
“It is clear that in Costa Rica there are many impressionable people and that the exaggerated coverage of femicide cases drives them to commit homicides,” said Zuñiga.
“Many people are influenced, they are influenced by a television series, in the case of the person who killed Nadia (Peraza), there is obviously a great influence from an American television series about a serial killer who had part of the victims in a refrigerator and there we find a very great, a parallelism,” added Zuñiga.
One of the recent cases is that of Kimberly Araya, who was found dead on April 26 after a week of searching for her.
She was reported missing, but her husband murdered her. The media have detailed how he moved her body to the area of the Zurquí, videos of the subject have even been shared while he was passing through the tolls on Ruta 32.
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Another situation is that of Nadia Peraza, about whom details have been disclosed of how her partner impersonated her, and moved the refrigerator, as well as what was found in the appliance, among other things.
As in suicides
The bridge over the Virilla river that divides Tibás with Santo Domingo de Heredia, popularly known as the Saprissa bridge, was once used for people to commit suicide.
The news of cases led vulnerable people to take their lives in a similar action. A spiral effect.
Zuñiga pointed out that individuals exhibit patterns and behaviors, and tend to repeat behaviors that they have internalized.
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One in three deaths of women in Costa Rica is femicide
Up to June 13 this year, 29 murders of women were reported, ten of which were declared femicides. That is, one in three cases involves the death of a woman due to this crime.
Given this, the Judiciary insists that women victims of domestic violence and attempted femicide take restraining measures.
“From the Judiciary we call on all people who are going through situations of violence to file complaints and request protection measures. These measures are an administrative guarantee that will allow to have support and protection from the police forces,” declared. Roxana Chacón, a magistrate and coordinator of the Gender Commission and the Permanent Commission for Monitoring the Care and Prevention of Domestic Violence.
She also called on family members, acquaintances and friends of victims, not to abandon them and to help them in these processes.
Among the actions that will be carried out in the Judiciary starting this month is a training process for the personnel of all the Courts that hear domestic violence in the country.
In addition, there will be awareness workshops with people who directly deal with cases of domestic violence, including judges, prosecutors, and police officers, among others. Likewise, journalists were invited to attend an event on addressing news of femicides and other crimes of violence against women.
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