Analysis of the first legislative proposal to criminalize non-consensual removal of the condom in Costa Rica: legal and evidentiary problems

Abstract

In July 2019, a bill was presented in the Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica to create a crime that would punish the sexual practice known as stealthing with high prison terms, however, the text proposed for this criminal type would have brought serious legal and evidentiary problems if approved, because of poor legislative technique, devoid of technical rigor and conceptual clarity. This article constitutes a critique from the evidentiary reasoning and the criminal legal perspective that analyzes the problems that the investigation of these crimes would have faced, it’s characteristics as a sexual crime and also advances the theoretical discussion on the adequate construction of a criminal type of stealthing, in accordance with the requirements of the principle of criminal classification and legal certainty as a guarantee of constitutional status. It anticipates future legislative discussions on the criminalization of such conduct.