Control of Emotional Behavior: A View of Criminal Responsibility against Gender Violence

Abstract

In Latin America there are several criminal systems by means of which cases  resulting in damages caused by perpetrators affected by or even victims of  emotional conditions which modify their habitual behavior have been deemed  as punishable events. These systems are even more complex when dealing with  crimes of passion in which most victims are women. This opens a window for  analyzing criminal responsibility in relation to emotional behaviors, the weak line  between emotion and disease for assessing the defendants’ behavior based on
forensic and judicial documents that clearly prove the violent action, as well as  justice managers’ discretion when they should qualify the victim’s reaction against  his/her perpetrator as 'provocative, serious, and unjust' to be in compliance with
requirements demanded by criminal mitigating circumstances. These reflections  have been made after analyzing three cases of murdered women, heard by Pasto (N) Judicial District (Colombia).