Impunity arises when the person responsible for an offense does not receive the appropriate sanction.
Impunity is a term from the Latin word impunitas that refers to the lack of punishment . Punishment, on the other hand, is the penalty imposed on someone who has committed a fault or crime .
This means that, when there is impunity, the person who has committed an offense or crime does not receive the punishment that corresponds to his or her actions. In this way, their behavior is not punished or amended.
For example: "The neighbors gathered in the square to demand that impunity be put to an end" , "I will not accept that there is impunity in such a transcendent case" , "The murderer enjoys impunity and can still walk with total freedom" » .
Impunity as an escape from a sanction
Impunity can be understood as the evasion or escape of the sanction that a misdemeanor or crime implies. Impunity typically occurs when, for political or other reasons, a person responsible for violating the law is not punished and, therefore, his victims receive no redress.
Take the case of a car salesman who scams buyers. The victims and their lawyers maintain that, according to the law, the offender is sentenced to four years in prison. The judge in charge of the case, however, considers that there is not enough evidence to convict the seller and acquits him. The victims maintain that this is a case of impunity and that the scammer bribed the judge to buy their freedom.
Impunity is usually associated with the rich and famous, especially with cases of tax evasion , given the tactics that many stars use to avoid paying all the taxes they are entitled to, which turns the balance even more in their favor in terms of fortune. refers.
Impunity favors crime.
Social frustration
In general, cases that go unpunished are characterized by frustration and a feeling of helplessness on the part of the people affected. This occurs especially in crimes that cannot be solved, either due to corruption or lack of evidence, since someone loses their life in a horrible way and their family and friends must endure the fact that the guilty enjoy their freedom and, in case little, continue committing murders.
Other types of cases that often end in absolute impunity do not include direct violence, but rather negligence, which can have even worse consequences. An example was the death of Florencia Mesa , a 7-year-old girl who was playing innocently in a hammock when the collapse of the structure took her life with a strong blow to the skull. The parents declared that the plaza located in the Buenos Aires town of Pilar (Argentina) was not in good condition and the experts managed to determine that the wear and tear of the games was alarming; However, no one was identified as directly responsible.
There is a special almost cultural fear that criminals will go unpunished, although many of the people who have had to go through cases like that of poor Florencia Mesa assure that after a few years the fight focuses on ensuring that there are no more victims and not on a mere revenge in the best style, the law of retaliation . Impunity is serious because it shows that justice is not perfect and that makes it clear that the State cannot always protect us and that it cannot guarantee solutions to all our social problems.
It is important to emphasize that impunity does not always respond to a lack of principles on the part of the authorities, but can arise as a consequence of a very well-planned crime, which does not leave enough evidence to trace its perpetrators.