Parricide among LGBTI Cohabitants in Chile

Abstract

This work develops an argumentative line to subsume in the criminal type of parricide (390 Penal Code) those homicidal behaviors committed within a LGBTI coexistence relationship. For this, a theoretical and normative framework is exposed that warns that the lack of neutrality of the legal discourse and postulates the need to judge from a gender perspective, in line with the principle of equality and non-discrimination. We show the main doctrinal and jurisprudential arguments that raises the indeterminacy of the word “cohabitation”, allowing to conclude that, restricting the criminal type of parricide to heterosexual relationships generates arbitrary discrimination, having repercussions in the right of access to justice. Thus, a correct use of the general rules of interpretation, with a gender perspective, allows to discard a case of analogy and become aware that this interpretation must take into account the legally protected good and the social context of the moment in which the law is applied and the fundamental rights of LGBTI people.