In recent years, violence against women in Costa Rica has been on the rise. The latest survey by the Center for Research and Political Studies of the University of Costa Rica (UCR) states that an overwhelming 90% of the population is aware of this phenomenon. A total of 94.1% of women believe that the number of cases has increased, compared to 85.6% of men.
The survey asked about possible triggers, with respondents citing drug use (86.5%), exposure to violence (83.3%), and men’s upbringing (76.5%) as the most common. Other factors included hatred of women (71%) and mental health issues (61.2%).
As part of the survey, CIEP asked people about situations of physical, sexual, and psychological violence they had experienced in the last two years.
“The answers obtained showed that most of the situations presented are experienced more frequently by people identified with the female gender,” the report states.
For females, the most common form of violence is public humiliation or ridicule (38%), followed by forced sexual acts (27%) and unwanted sexual contact, such as touching or groping (26%).
Meanwhile, for males, the most frequent experience is having unknown substances added to their drinks without consent (31%), followed by public humiliation (28%) and physical attacks with objects or force (25%).
In measuring perceptions of violence against women, one of the questions asked was whether the government is being held responsible for the increase in the number of cases. 62% of the population surveyed thought that the current government has some or a great deal of responsibility for this situation, while 38% assigned little or no responsibility.
Interestingly, when comparing the evaluation of President Rodrigo Chaves’ performance with the responsibility given to the current government regarding the trend of increased violent deaths of women in 2023, the group that has a positive evaluation of the President’s performance tends to assign less responsibility to the government for this problem.
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