The natural penalty in traffic offenses when the victim is a spouse or cohabitant in a de facto unión

Abstract

Traffic accidents often involve two main parties: the offender and the victim. In certain cases, these parties may share close family ties, such as being spouses or cohabitants in a de facto union. In light of this reality, the present study focused on analyzing the application of the natural penalty for alleged traffic offenders when the victim is their spouse or cohabitant, and how this measure impacts the principle of equality established in the Constitution. The study aimed to assess how the inclusion of the natural penalty in the Comprehensive Organic Criminal Code (COIP) affects or upholds this principle. An explanatory methodology with a qualitative approach was used, based on the legal analysis of laws, doctrine, jurisprudence, and theoretical foundations. Inductive-deductive, dogmatic, and exegetical methods were applied, complemented by the bibliographic review technique and data collection through information cards. The analysis focused on the COIP, the Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador, and previous studies on the natural penalty. The results show that the Ecuadorian criminal system violates the principle of equality by excluding alleged traffic offenders from the benefit of the natural penalty when the victim is their spouse or cohabitant. Therefore, it is recommended to reform Article 372 of the COIP to explicitly include spouses and cohabitants in a de facto union as potential beneficiaries.