“The Age of Malice”: Estupro, Consent, and the Foundations of Victim Blaming in the Criminal Courts of Buenos Aires, 1853–1878

Abstract

Abstract This article examines the judicial treatment of pubescent, female victims of sexual assault in Buenos Aires, Argentina, between 1853 and 1878, dates that span the decades between the national constitution and the adoption by Buenos Aires Province of new penal legislation. Centering the case of 13-year-old Irene Mestosini, it analyzes the prosecution of estupro cases through the paradigm of rape culture and victim blaming. It exposes how, by casting pubescent girls as malicious because of their physical and mental development, authorities blamed them for their assault while dismissing men's aggressive sexuality. By illustrating the ways in which physiological development worked alongside legal cultures, class expectations, and heteronormative gender norms to create a culture of impunity around sexual assault, this article suggests that modern notions of acceptable and unacceptable sexuality emerged in Buenos Aires earlier than in other parts of Latin America, where honor remained a central concern well into the twentieth century.