The criminal offense of involuntary disappearance in Ecuador and its dogmatic and normative peculiarities
Keywords:
Due process, involuntary disappearance, Ecuadorian criminal law, principle of legality, specificity of the crimeAbstract
This paper analyzes the configuration of the crime of involuntary disappearance as The paper analyzes the configuration of the offense of involuntary disappearance provided for in Article 163.1 of the Organic Comprehensive Criminal Code and questions whether it truly fills a gap in criminal protection or rather reproduces, under a different name, situations already covered by enforced disappearance, kidnapping, or unlawful detention, thereby creating a field of doctrinal and practical confusion. Thus, the general objective is to propose a legislative reform to the criminal offense of involuntary disappearance as currently defined and sanctioned, so that it may be applied in a manner consistent with the role of criminal typicity. The methodological approach is qualitative, applying both the literature review method and the exegetical method. Based on this, the study examines the objective and subjective elements of the offense, the protected legal interest, and its place within the theory of crime, together with the tensions it generates in relation to the principle of legality, the presumption of innocence, and evidentiary activity in cases involving missing persons. It concludes that the current wording is imprecise and leads to inconsistent decisions, making reform necessary in order to better delimit its scope and evidentiary requirements.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Leyner Duberly Dávila-Ruiz, Yudith López-Soria, Sandra Patricia Morejón-Llanos
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