https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6419-8392
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ABSTRACT
Police sexual misconduct (PSM) is often referred to as hidden offenses because they are normally unreported. Most of the literature on the topic focuses on the sexual harassment experiences of policewomen. The media is increasingly reporting female civilians who have been affected by this form of police deviant behaviour. However, little is known about the experiences of female serious offenders with police sexual harassment and other forms of PSM. This study will examine how machismo in the Latin American country of Ecuador manifests in police officers and female offenders’ accounts and perceptions of PSM. Women’s responses to this form of police deviance will also be discussed. It was found that, according to both police officers and female offenders, consensual sex (even when both police and detainees referred to some sexual acts as consensual because no physical force was used, such sexual activity cannot truly be considered consensual given the unequal power dynamic and lack of basic resources available to female detainees.) was common in police detention centres. The encounters resulted in women receiving certain benefits. Police officers typically avoided their responsibility or that of their colleagues in the perpetuation of this behaviour. Machismo and the lack of supervision in police detention facilities are two factors influencing this behaviour in Ecuador.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Since 2014, the Ecuadorian criminal code typifies femicide (Ortiz Citation2019).
2 According to the following three paragraphs of the ‘Convention Belem do Para’, violence against women
(1) occurs within the family or domestic unit or within any other interpersonal relationship, whether or not the perpetrator shares or has shared the same residence with the woman, including, among others, rape, battery and sexual abuse; (2) occurs in the community and is perpetrated by any person, including, among others, rape, sexual abuse, torture, trafficking in persons, forced prostitution, kidnapping and sexual harassment in the workplace, as well as in educational institutions, health facilities or any other place; and (3) is perpetrated or condoned by the state or its agents regardless of where it occurs. (Chapter 1, art. 2)
3 In January, Martha (35 years old) was a victim of gang rape when she went out to celebrate her birthday in a bar-restaurant located in the capital city, Quito.
4 Diana (22) was murdered by her intimate partner in January this year. The attacker took the woman hostage for over an hour and later stabbed her three times in the chest. This happened in front of the police and numerous witnesses. Diana was 4 months pregnant.
5 According to Sapp (Citation1998 cited Maher Citation2008), ‘lonely’ or mentally ill women looking for the companionship of police officers, or feeling attracted to the uniform, initiated these encounters.
6 The data presented in this article are drawn from a larger project that combines the analysis of archival information and in-depth interviews. That project focuses on police deviance and female offenders’ victimisation in Latin America. It was possible to find experiences of PSM similar to those analysed in this article in female inmates’ court documents produced since 1980.
7 According to the 1998 Organic Law of the National Police (article 56), the PJ has as its fundamental aims preventing and investigating criminal offenses and the arrest of the alleged perpetrators (Ley Orgánica de la Policía Judicial Citation1998). The PJ has different stations with provisional detention cells across the country. All interviewees noted that the conditions of these detention facilities were extremely poor.
8 In 1997, The Organic Law of the Ombudsman Office (Defensor del Pueblo) established that the Defensor del Pueblo had to carry out periodic visits to military bases and police stations to monitor the respect of fundamental rights (Ley Orgánica de la Defensoría del Pueblo Citation1997). It was reported in 2008 that the Defensoría del Pueblo had a poor performance as a guarantor of the rights of citizens against the excesses of the public administration personnel (Pontón Citation2009).
9 Many of these women were arrested and remained in police detention cells when the Public Defense Service was not established or when it was recently established, so they did not always have access to a public lawyer who would protect their rights and assist them in their defense. The Public Defense Service in Ecuador was officially institutionalised in 2010.