Child and adolescent victims of sexual homicide in Chile between 1998 and 2021: A review of 27 cases and their autopsy reports

Abstract

Rape followed by murder against children and adolescents is one of the most serious existing crimes. The autopsies of victims of violent crimes can provide fundamental findings for the investigative process and the pursuit of justice. This research conducts a descriptive analysis of the most important findings from the autopsies of 27 cases of children and adolescents who died in Chile between 1998 and 2021 as a result of rape followed by homicide (n = 27), as well as from the judiciary rulings of these cases to gather information related to the perpetrators. It was found that the victims of this crime are mostly girls with an average age of 10, while the perpetrators are primarily single men aged 29 on average, most of whom have not finished high school. A significant relationship was found between the location of the crime and the cause of death and signs of sexual contact, the marital status of the perpetrator and the cause of death, the age of the perpetrator and signs of sexual contact, and the relationship between victim and perpetrator and signs of sexual contact.