Costa Rica News – There are currently 215 complaints about having sex with minors. 87 were reported to the Judicial Investigation Agency this year and 128 complaints made to the Gender Prosecutor’s Office over the same period.
Last January, we saw the law against improper relations come into force. According to this, adults maintaining relationships with adolescents between 15 and 18 years of age will be punished with two to three years in prison, provided the accused is at least seven years older than the victim.
If the victim is over 13 and under 15, and the accused is five or more years older, it changes the sentence to three to six years.
The saddest part is that many of the improper relations are well known among the families and communities and even law officials. They also bring about teenage pregnancies.
The teenager killed last week had been in a relationship with the murderer for years. Her family knew, as did the Traffic Police, PANI and the Criminal Court of San Carlos. Nobody helped her. She was failed.
26 femicides were reported in 2016, including three minors and four young adults under age 23. 15 of the victims were mothers, leaving 29 children and adolescents orphans.
