Violence against women was prevalent across all classes of Chilean society until 1994.Culliton, K. M. (1994, January). Legal remedies for domestic violence in Chile & the US--Cultural relativism, myths & realities. Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law . As of the early 1990s, it was reported that domestic violence affects about fifty percent of the women in Chile. The Intrafamily Violence Law passed in 1994 was the first political measure to address violence in the home, but because the law would not pass without being accepted by both sides, the law was weak in the way it addressed victim protection and punishment for abusers.Haas, Liesl (2010). Feminist Policymaking in Chile. University Park, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press. The law was later reformed in 2005. In 2019, amid the ongoing Catholic sex abuse crisis in Chile, non-retroactive legislation was passed removing the statute of limitations for trying people for committing sex abuse against children in Chile.
