Courtroom tales of sex and honor: rapto and rape in late-nineteenth-century Puerto Rico

Machismo and other Intimacies in Twentieth‐Century Bolivia: Reflections on Conducting Oral Histories about Sexuality and Reproduction

“…Literature on the history of rape in Latin America shows that shifting definitions of rape and rapto (or 'the abduction and deflowering of a young woman') in legal spheres and public opinion were influenced by essentialised ideas of what constituted 'natural' behaviour by men and women, changing ideas about honour, race and socioeconomic status, and variations in parental rights in different contexts. 8 More recently, reformers have designed and wielded terms like sexual violence to gather data and shape public policy. One 2008 survey found that nearly fifty percent of women in Bolivia had experienced some form of abuse -whether sexual, psychological or physical -within the context of an intimate relationship during the previous five years.…”