La oportunidad criminal en situaciones de crisis. Abusos y explotación sexual de menores en misiones de paz de la onu

Abstract

Sexual abuse of minors committed by UN personnel displaced in humanitarian missions presents peculiarities that distinguish them from any other crime of a similar nature. The characteristics of offenders –personal of the largest world organization that cites among its missions the promotion of fundamental rights-, victims –people especially vulnerable for being minors and for having experienced traumatic experiences associated with the territories-, and places of commission -areas in serious humanitarian crisis where every social and institutional system fails, converge in a situation conducive to the criminal opportunity. Following the Routine Activities Theory, this paper will analyze the factors that converge in each area, allowing the criminal opportunity to take place. This fragmentation of the problem allows studying the favorable aspects of crime at each vertex of this triangular structure, as well as the protective aspects that are called to intervene in each case. In this way it will be possible, in later developments, to provide proposals for intervention and improvement in order to make it difficult to commit crimes of this nature.