Experts of that entity attributed the local increase of fatalities, which exceeds the 17 killed in 2023, to a kind of tendency to mimic other crimes associated with the home that have occurred before, such as femicides.

Violent deaths such as those of women originate a sort of “copycat phenomenon” in men who, in any case, planned to end the life of their partner or ex-partner, according to Randall Zúñiga, director of the OIJ.

It is an effect similar to what happens with suicides, the specialist said, and recalled in this regard how during a time some repeated the action of people who attempted against their lives from the bridge over the Virilla River, known as “Saprissa bridge”.

Zúñiga recalled, “Just a simple report of deaths there in that way generated a string of other cases of people who imitated those suicidal acts”.

According to the OIJ leader, in general, when a situation of femicide or domestic violence occurs, it generates some quite publicized situation of the event, which could motivate more people to follow that form of murder or self-immolation.

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