The Crime, Justice & Society Seminar Series presents

Gender-motivated crimes: An overview of the challenges faced by criminalizing gender motives 

Marianela Delgado (University of Girona)

About the event

The term 'gender crimes' presently encompasses a diverse array of offenses associated, directly or indirectly, with matters related to gender. Within this classification of crimes, there exists a distinct category which is delineated based on the acknowledgement of gender's involvement in the commission of criminal acts. More specifically, these crimes are characterized by gender being recognized as the motive behind the perpetration of criminal behavior.

The integration of these particular offenses into criminal law has exhibited considerable variation across different legal jurisdictions. Nevertheless, discernible trends or typical models of criminalization can be identified, often shared among countries that have incorporated these offenses into their legal frameworks. Among the various models employed, the one of primary interest involves the necessity for evidencing two aspects: (1) the occurrence of a criminal act and (2) the motivation for such conduct being based on gender, constituting what is termed the 'gender motive'. This prevailing model is widely adopted across numerous countries, yet it has encountered significant criticism. One of the most pertinent objections questions its effectiveness, primarily due to the inherent challenges associated with proving the specific mental state denoted by the gender motive. While this critique is often broadly articulated, it has garnered some acceptance. Nevertheless, while it is indisputable that the assessment of mental states poses a challenge, it is imperative to expound upon the various levels at which the purported difficulty may become apparent. This exploration is essential to evaluate whether the evidentiary hurdles presented by this model are genuinely insurmountable or, on the contrary, there is room for developing strategies to mitigate the inherent challenges associated with proving certain categories of mental states. Consistent with this, four diverse approaches addressing the complexity of proving gender motives are examined to refine the discussion and, consequently, either contest or provide a clearer defense of the referenced model.

About the Speaker 

Marianela Delgado is a PhD student at the University of Girona, Spain. She has a Master's degree in Evidentiary Reasoning from the same university and the University of Genoa, Italy, and a Law degree from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. She clerked in the Supreme Court of Mexico from 2015 to 2018, became a Public Defense Attorney for Indigenous Communities from 2018 to 2019, and served as Deputy Director General of Human Rights of the Supreme Court from 2019 to 2020, where she was in charge of co-writing the Handbook for Judging from a Gender Perspective. Since then, she has been working on topics related to gender, evidence, femicide and hate crimes.