Real Crime Stories/Paranormal Hauntings

The Women of Juarez

Other scholars also state that femicide rates in Ciudad Juárez are lower than in American cities such as Houston and Ensenada, and as a share of overall homicide rates they are typically lower than in other cities.

Motives

The uncertainty about the characteristics of the perpetrators, their relationships to the victims, or their motives is primarily due to the dysfunction of the Mexican justice system as most cases have been inadequately investigated and documented. While in many of the cases in Ciudad Juárez it has yet to be determined who exactly has committed the murders, much of the literature on this issue purports that patriarchal backlash against working women may be a potential motive for the killings.

It is believed that the femicide in Ciudad Juárez may be related to organized crime (like prostitution rings) given the presence of the powerful drug cartels in the region. Further, criminal gangs have become a permanent threat particularly to women on the border. Gang activity creates high risk for women especially due to very little institutional protection.

This patriarchal backlash may indeed be the result of lack of employment opportunities for men and more women entering the workforce which has altered traditional gender dynamics and created a situation of conflict between the sexes. Other researchers attribute the murders to Mexico's structural crisis including increasing poverty, unemployment, the disintegration of the peasant economy, migration, and a dysfunctional justice system. Overall, in considering the potential motives for gendered violence against women, academic Mercedes Olivera has argued that femicide is a mechanism of domination, control, oppression, and power over women.

Contributing factors

Organized crime and drug trafficking

In examining femicide in Ciudad Juárez, it is important to consider the impact of the drug trade. Juárez is the seat of the Mexican drug cartel which has resulted in high levels of violence that have been directed at the Mexican population. It is believed that the femicide in Ciudad Juárez may be related to the powerful drug cartels along the border. Further, gangs have become a permanent threat particularly to women on the border. Gang activity creates high risk for women especially due to very little institutional protection.

Often, misogyny is a common trait of gang activity. According to a study conducted in 2008 using the Feminicide Database 1993–2007 at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte, which documented incidents of feminicide that occurred in Ciudad Juárez from 1993–2007, 9.1% of the murders of women were attributed to organized crime and drug trafficking activities.

From 2007-2010, the murder rate spiked by around 1000%, from around 1 reported murder per day, to around 10 murders per day on average. After the ATF gunwalking scandal where United States federal ATF agents were exposed for engaging in a scheme to "inadvertently" arm Mexican drug cartels with firearms in 2010, the rate has gradually declined from the previous status of the "murder capital of the world".

Maquila industry

Maquiladoras are widely known for their cheap labor and their exploitative conditions, such as regularly violating basic human rights, which often target women. Women and girls often migrate from villages or rural areas in other parts of Mexico in search of work in the maquilas. According to Livingston, this migration of women created, "a new phenomenon of mobile, independent and vulnerable working women," in cities like Ciudad Juárez. Women and girls are often funneled to work in areas that require lower education, and pay lower wages.

Maquiladoras construct their female workforce under the notion that female workers are temporary workers, therefore justifying lower wages and creating a high turnover rate of laborers. According to Monarrez Fragoso, "the practices of the maquiladora industry towards the workers reveal a consume and dispose cycle." This consume and dispose cycle represents how the maquila industry creates "disposable" women referencing the devaluation and expendable nature of their labor.