Abstract

WHITE WARD, Omar A  and  CAMPOS CHACON, Krysia. El incesto: su perspectiva histórica y jurídica. Med. leg. Costa Rica [online]. 2004, vol.21, n.2, pp.21-36. ISSN 2215-5287.

Incest has been practiced since the times of Adam and Eve, is must have been accepted in order to multiply. Many anthropological theories try to explain it, one of them is the Levi-Strauss, which states that for man to pass from nature to culture, incest must be forbidden. According to a study realized in the year 1990, the most number of victims of incest in Costa Rica are women; their fathers and step-fathers are the main aggressors, and the age of most victims was nine years old. A great percentage of incest behaviors, maybe the highest one, remains in the shadows, inside the family that suffers the unchaining pathology derived from this action. The promiscuity in the house, the excess of members heaping together, is one of the most important factors that influence in the product of incest. Incestuous relationships attempt against the family’s unity. Now a days the reforms in the Penal Codices, make incestuous transgressions disappear like an independent penal felony. The protection of the sexual freedom remains safe and kinship relationships act like an aggravation to the rape felony and sexual relationships with young people; in this last case, the felony is penalized with prison when the victim is under the eighteen years of age

Keywords : Adam; Eve; incest; propagation; nature; culture; forbidden incest; victims; women; fathers; step-fathers; aggressors; unchaining pathology; promiscuity; members heaping together.