Femicide

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Femicide or feminicide is a sex-based hate crime term, broadly defined as "the intentional killing of women or girls because they are female", though definitions vary depending on its cultural context.^[1] Feminist author Diana E. H. Russell was the first person to define and disseminate this term in modern times, in 1976. She defines the word as "the killing of females by males because they are female." Other feminists place emphasis on the intention or purpose of the act being directed at females specifically because they are female. Others include the killing of females by females.^[2]

Intimate partner violence affects 3 in 10 women over a lifetime, and it is estimated that 13.5% of homicides globally involved intimate partners, and these percentage of killings are gendered.^[3][4] Opponents argue that since over 80% of all murder victims are men, the term places too much emphasis on the less prevalent murder of females. However, a partner is responsible in almost 40% of homicides involving a female victim, compared with 6% partner responsibility for homicides involving a male victim.^[3] In addition, the study of femicide is a social challenge.^[5]

An alternative term offered is gendercide, which is considered more ambivalent and inclusive. However, some feminists argue that the term gendercide perpetuates the taboo of the subject of the murder of females and proves the continual silencing power of dominant male structures in society.^[6] Feminists also argue that the motives for femicide are vastly different than those for androcide. Instead of centering in street violence, much of femicide is centered within the home, i.e., domestic violence.

History[]

Development of the term[]

The term femicide was first used in England in 1801 to signify "the killing of a woman.^[7] In 1848, this term was published in Wharton's Law Lexicon.^[8] Another term used is feminicide, which is properly formed from the Latin femina, meaning "female" ("femicide" being truncated).

The current usage emerged with the 1970s feminist movements, which aimed to raise feminine consciousness and resistance against gender oppression.^[9] The term was also coined by radical feminists to bring to a political light the violence against women.^[10] American author, Carol Orlock, is widely credited with initiating the usage of the term in this context in her unpublished anthology on femicide.^[9] Diana Russell publicized the term at the Crimes Against Women Tribunal in 1976 while "testifying at the first International Tribunal on Crimes against Women in Belgium".^[11][10] Here is part of what she wrote for the proceedings: "We must realize that a lot of homicide is femicide. We must recognize the sexual politics of murder. From the burning of witches in the past, to the more recent widespread custom of female infanticide in many societies, to the killing of women for "honor," we realize that femicide has been going on a long time. But since it involves mere females, there was no name for it until Carol Orlock invented the word 'femicide.'"^[11] Until recently, femicide was invisible in much of the scientific literature.^[12] Intimate femicide can be identified as such by using the "severity of violence, such as access to and threats with firearms, forced sex, threats to kill, and strangulation" to determine whether a case can be considered an act of femicide or not.^[3] The definition of femicide also relies on "inequalities in gender 'in terms of education, economic level, and employment'".^[13]

Contemporary definition by feminists[]

Feminist author Diana Russell narrows the definition of femicide to "the killing of females by males because they are female". Russell places emphasis on the idea that males commit femicide with sexist motives.^[14] She also chooses to replace the word woman with female to show that femicide can occur to both girls and infants as well.^[14] Russell believes her definition of femicide applies to all forms of sexist killing, whether they be motivated by misogyny (the hatred of females), by a sense of superiority over females, by sexual pleasure, or by the assumption of ownership over women.^[14] Russell's broader definition of femicide is: "Femicide is on the extreme end of a continuum of antifemale terror that includes a wide variety of verbal and physical abuse, such as rape, torture, sexual slavery (particularly in prostitution), incestuous and extrafamilial child sexual abuse, physical and emotional battery, sexual harassment (on the phone, in the streets, at the office, and in the classroom), genital mutilation (clitoridectomies, excision, infibulations), unnecessary gynecological operations (gratuitous hysterectomies), forced heterosexuality, forced sterilization, forced motherhood (by criminalizing contraception and abortion), psychosurgery, denial of food to women in some cultures, cosmetic surgery, and other mutilations in the name of beautification. Whenever these forms of terrorism result in death, they become femicides."^[15]

She includes covert killings of women as well, such as the mass murder of female babies due to male preference in cultures such as India and China, as well as deaths related to the failure of social institutions, such as the criminalization of abortion or the prevalence of female genital mutilation.^[14]

Other definitions[]

Diana Russell's definition is not accepted by all scholars as the standard definition for femicide. Jacquelyn Campbell and Carol Runyan use the word femicide to reference "all killings of women regardless of motive or perpetrator status"^[16] These authors argue that motive is not always empirically possible to be determined, and so must be removed from the qualification for femicide to gather data.

On the other hand, authors Desmond Ellis and Walter Dekesedery take a different approach by viewing the definition of femicide as "the intentional killing of females by males".^[17] These feminists require that femicide always be intentional, unlike the inclusion of covert femicide in Diana Russell's definition.^[17] Femicides are also identified "as 'slip-ups' in a power struggle in which men strive to control women and deprive them of their liberty and women struggle for autonomy".^[3]

Most of these definitions imply that the perpetrator of femicide is a man. Still, South Asian feminists differ in their definition, stating that femicide is "the intentional killing of females by men and of females by other females in the interests of men".^[14] Examples of this include neglect of female children in preference of males, as well as dowry-related murder where female in-laws kill women due to dowry disputes. Moreover, COST Action 1206 provides definitions of femicide.^[18]

These definitions refer to the idea that femicide is unique from non-gendered descriptions of murder and homicide. Instead, defining femicide exemplifies the fact that women are killed for different reasons and motives from those associated with typical descriptions of murder.^[19] Globally, femicide has seldom been investigated separately from homicide, and the goal of many of these authors is to make femicide a separate category.^[16] In 2013, COST set up Action IS-1206 entitled "Femicide across Europe".^{[20][21][22][23]}

Causes[]

Defined by Diana Russell, femicide includes intimate partner femicide, lesbicide, racial femicide, serial femicide, mass femicide, honor killing related femicide, dowry and more. Any act of sexual terrorism that results in death is considered femicide. Covert femicide also takes form in the criminalization of abortion leading to death of the mother, intentional spread of HIV/AIDS,^[14] or death as a result of female genital mutilation.

The most widespread form of femicide in the world is that committed by an intimate partner of a female. This accounts for at least 35% of all murders of women globally.^[24]

Different areas of the world experience femicide varyingly, i.e., the Middle East and South Asia have higher rates of honor killing: the murder of women by their family due to an actual or assumed sexual or behavioral transgression such as adultery, sexual intercourse, or even having been raped.^[24]

Among intimate partners[]

Intimate partner femicide, sometimes called intimate femicide, or romantic femicide, refers to "the killing of a woman by her intimate partner or her former intimate partner". These can include former or current boyfriends, husbands, and common-law husbands.

5-8% of all murders committed by male perpetrators are cases of intimate partner homicide.^[25] For example, an examination from media and internet sources of every single murder of an elderly woman committed between 2006 and 2015 revealed that all the cases of female geronticide in Israel were exclusively intimate partner femicides, and perpetrated in the domestic arena.^[26]

Acts of incest, sexual harassment, rape and battering, and other forms of violence are also found to escalate over time within a familial relationship, possibly resulting in femicide.^[14] The prevalence of intimate partner femicide is said to dispel the myth that women have the most to fear from strangers, and instead are most often killed within the private sphere of the home.^[27] Argued by Jacquelyn Campbell, a common motive that causes men to kill their intimate partners is jealousy, a result of male efforts to control and possess women to display ownership and reinforce patriarchy.^[19]

A "feminist reconceptualization" of intimate partner violence viewed as "a crime against humanity"^[28] claims a structural system is to blame for the murder of women rather than violent individuals. It is cross-cultural on a mass scale, and is suggested to be considered as a human rights violation by the Women's Studies International Forum. While authors acknowledge "crimes are committed by individuals and not by abstract entities,"^[28] the prevalence of domestic violence constitutes it as an epidemic. Contemporary feminists believe that re-framing intimate partner violence as a state crime and a crime against humanity will have a "transformative effect" on the reduction of violence against women committed by their significant others, as it is already recognized as a violation of the international human rights law. Intimate partner violence by women on men is, in contrast, downplayed or justified, though research finds that most intimate partner violence is bidirectional or female upon male.^[29][30] Indicative of activist attitudes is the fact that one group supported by the Canadian government, the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability, has an expert advisory panel that consists of 36 women and no men.^[31]

Risk factors that increase the likelihood of intimate partner femicide include: when a male has previously threatened to commit suicide or kill the woman if she cheats on him or leaves him, when there is elevated alcohol or drug abuse by either partner or when a male attempts to control a woman's freedom. Two-fifths of intimate partner femicide is related to the use of intoxicants.^[25] Other factors commonly associated with male perpetrators of femicide include gun ownership, forcing sexual intercourse, and unemployment. Women's risk factors include: if they are pregnant, have faced prior abuse from their partner, are estranged from their partner, or are attempting to leave a relationship, their likelihood of femicide increases.^[24] The presence of firearms within a home is a large factor in intimate partner femicide, and worldwide, firearms are used in one-third of all femicides.^[32]

As often reported in the public eye, male perpetrators are seen as "being driven" to commit femicide due to a "breakdown in love attributed to the female".^[25] In defense trials, the defense of provocation is often used to reduce the time men serve in prison. Conversely, women are not often as successful with using this idea of provocation in their murder trials, and judges are statistically less likely to accept claims of self-defense, showing biased judging standards.^{[19][citation needed]}

Factors that decrease the risk of intimate partner femicide include a separate domicile for women and other societal factors such as more police as well as mandated arrest for violation of restraining orders related to intimate partner violence. Karen D. Stout found that there is a correlation between the number of women's shelters in a state, the number of rape crisis centers and a lowered rate of femicide. One explanation of this correlation is that implementing these measures has positively affected lowering the femicide rate. Other effective legislation against femicide include legislation that defines civil injunction relief, defines physical abuse as a criminal offense', allows arrest without a warrant, requires data collection and reporting, and provides funds for women's shelters.^[19]

Racially motivated[]

The Hope Movement defines racist femicide as racially motivated killing of women by men of a different race.^[33] According to Diana Russell and fellow writer Jill Radford, "Racism interacts with violence against women and shapes both femicide itself and the ways it is addressed by the local community, the police, the media, and the legal system."^[19] Russell, Radford, and many other feminist activists assert that when looking at femicide within the United States specifically, one must consider the politics of both sexism and racism in the murders of black women and the little justice that is often served.^[34] Media coverage especially can exhibit bias when covering the murders of black versus white women. Jaime Grant writes on the murder of 12 young women in Boston and exposes the "...racism in media coverage, which virtually ignored these killings initially and later depicted the victims in racist and sexist stereotypes as runaways or prostitutes."^[19] In addition, police response and investigation can often differ based on the victim's race.^[19]

Engaging in work with Black Feminist Studies, author Manshel claims the narrative formed around domestic violence is traditionally associated with a white, middle class, female victim, leaves victims of different races and social classes, to receive unequal care,^[35] and can lead to more victimization of the woman murdered/abused due to "narrative resistance," not aligning with the vulnerability typically expected by female victims. Manshel also traces back the history of assaults of Black women and makes the distinction that "the circumstances" of white victims were "wholly different" from those of "enslaved women" in the 19-20th century, and proposes that anti-racist frameworks be put into writing about sexual violence.

Sexually motivated (homophobic)[]

According to Diana Russell and Jill Radford, lesbicide, also known as homophobic femicide,^[19] has a long history of legalized murder of lesbians in many different cultural contexts:

• Roman civilization: a married woman convicted of engaging in any sexual activity with another woman could be killed by her husband as a "just penalty for her crime".^[19]
• Medieval Europe: secular and religious doctrine mandated death for lesbianism. "The famous 1260 Code of Orleans in France secularized the prohibition of lesbianism, mandating that for the first two offenses a woman would 'lose her member'; for the third offense she would be burned."^[19]
• Witch-hunt of the 15th century: Witchcraft was linked with heresy and homosexuality. The phrase femina cum feminus (woman with woman) was often an accusation in witch trials.^[19]

Today, lesbianism is no longer a capital crime, but it remains criminalized by many governments and condemned by most religions.^[19] Torture and murder of lesbians occurs in every part of the world, even in "developed" countries.^[36] According to Dr. Susan Hawthorne of Victoria University, "...domination is exemplified in the punishment of lesbians as outsiders in patriarchal culture..."^[36] Dr. Hawthorne goes on to elaborate that lesbians are often killed or tortured or generally denied rights because of their invisibility in terms of political power and social representation: "When it comes to campaigns on violence against women, lesbians are either left out or included only in a footnote..."^[36]

A case study^[37] conducted in 2014 deeply analyzing multiple anti-LGBT cases of violence suggests that crimes like lesbicide can at least in part be explained by existing hyper-masculinity theories that observe the "accomplishment of gender." This confirms how scholars have theorized how "constructing masculinity is relevant to bias crime offending."^[37] One common occurrence the sociological researchers had found was the escalation of violence towards LGBT members when they were met with "unwanted heterosexual advances." The community agrees that violent crimes and homicides are heterogeneous phenomenons.

Corrective rape[]

According to political scientist and women's studies scholar Susan Hawthorne, corrective rape is a hate crime that constitutes forced sexual activity with a person who is either a woman, gender non-conforming, or identifies as a lesbian. The goal of corrective rape is to "correct" the victim's sexual orientation and make them heterosexual or behave in a more gender-conforming manner.^[36] This has led to death in some cases.^[36] There are documented cases of corrective rape in South Africa,^[38] Zimbabwe,^[39] Ecuador,^[40] and Thailand.^[41] Eudy Simelane was a famous soccer player who played for the South Africa women's national football team and LGBT rights activist; her murder was a highly publicized instance of simultaneous corrective rape and lesbicide in South Africa.

Tendency in serial killings[]

Serial femicide is defined as "the sexually sadistic killing of women," also called "sexual terrorism". Although over 90% of serial killers are male, not all are male; about 7% are female.^[42]

Male serial murderers tend to use more brutal methods of killing, such as suffocation and beatings. In contrast, women use poison or less violent measures. In addition, while a large percentage of male serial killers focus on women as their targets, female serial killers are less likely to focus exclusively on males. Some male serial killers focus on males as targets, such as Jeffrey Dahmer and Wayne Williams^[43] The ways serial murderers are portrayed in the media reflect the views on femicide and gender in society. Often, murders of prostitutes, low-income women, and women of color by serial killers receive less attention in the media than the killings of younger, prettier, more affluent women, usually married, engaged, or in relationships with much handsome, affluent, younger men their age. Serial killers are almost always portrayed as monsters and sociopaths in the news.^[43]

This section may contain indiscriminate, excessive, or irrelevant examples. Please by adding more descriptive text and removing less pertinent examples. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for further suggestions. (October 2018)

According to the FBI's Supplementary Homicide Report, local police reported that about 33,000 homicides of women remain unsolved. ^[44]

Feminists such as Diana Russell and Jane Caputi believe in a link between the rise of serial murders and the advent of pornography. Specifically, the advent of films that eroticize violence and murder of women has been correlated to the desires of serial killers. Numerous serial murderers filmed their victims as they violently killed them. These men include: Harvey Glatman, Kenneth Bianchi, and Leonard Lake, to name a few.^[19] However, the link between pornography and serial murders is not proven.^[43]

Worldwide[]

Every year an average of 66,000 women are violently killed globally, accounting for approximately 17% of all victims of intentional homicides.^[45] ba In 2017 87,000 women and girls were killed globally. This means 137 women are killed daily. According to a 2000 report by the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA), approximately 5,000 women are murdered each year in honor killings.^[46] The rates of femicide differ depending on the specific country, but of the countries with the top 25 highest femicide rates, 50% are in Latin America, with number one being El Salvador. Also included in the top 25 are seven European countries, three Asian countries, and one African country, South Africa. In a UN study, 1 in 4 women in the top 25 countries agreed that it was justifiable to be beaten or hit for arguing with their husband or refusing to have sex with him.^{[citation needed]} Overall, data on femicide worldwide is poor, and often countries do not report gender differences in murder statistics.^[47] In addition, reporting data on migrants is particularly scarce.^[48]

Africa[]

The continent varies in the manifestations of femicide depending on the country or region.^[49] Rarely Muslim women become a commodity in the fight between two factions and are killed when one faction (dis)approves of the wearing of the prescribed traditional dress.[14]

One of the biggest health problems in Africa is the epidemic of HIV/AIDS which affects 25.7 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa as of 2017. Whenever AIDS results in the death of a female due to misogyny or sexist male behavior, it is considered a form of femicide according to Diana Russell's definition of femicide.^[50]

Female genital mutilation is defined by the World Health Organization as "the removal of part or all of the external female genitalia and/or injury to the female genetic organs for cultural or other non-therapeutic reasons". Female genital mutilation results in femicide when women and girls die due to unhygienic practices of FGM that result in infection or death as well as the increased likelihood of contracting HIV/AIDS because of FGM.^[50]

Asia[]

Japan[]

In Japan, violence against women does not, at first sight, appear to be a big issue, overall homicide rates in the country are among the lowest in the world — below 1 per 100,000 people — and street crime is rare. Harassment is also uncommon: women generally feel safe when going out alone at night.^[51] Nevertheless, the jurisdiction has one of the highest rates of female homicide victims in the world, as a percentage of total homicides. According to a report by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), published in 2014, Japan, together with Hong Kong, top the ranking — with women comprising 52.9% of the total homicide victims — followed by South Korea at 52.5%.^[52]

India[]

Rita Banerji, feminist author and founder of The 50 Million Missing Campaign to end female gendercide in India, has said that there are also millions of girls and women killed through various forms of femicides that extend across various age groups. In a U.N. Symposium on Femicide in Vienna on November 26, 2012, she talked about the six most widespread forms of femicide in India.^[53] These included female infanticide, the killing of girls under six years through starvation and violence, the killing of women due to forced abortions, honor killings, dowry murders, and witch lynchings. Many of the femicides in India are perpetrated against girls.^[54] Despite progressive legal reforms in many parts of the region, strong patriarchal values are maintained and help perpetuate the subordination of women.^[55] According to the Special Rapporteur on violence against women for the Human Rights Council, key factors behind gender-motivated killings of women in Asia are the high level of importance placed on women's chastity and their subordination in the greater society.^[55] For example, while the Penal Code of India now specifically prohibits dowry, the reported number of dowry-related deaths of women has almost doubled from 4,836 to 8,383 over the past twenty years (1990–2009).^[55] The code is also criticized for having a low impact on the criminalization of perpetrators, noted in the low conviction rate of ten percent.^[55] Suicide is the leading cause of death for Nepalese women in the reproductive age group, with causes ranging from domestic abuse, forced marriage, casting out of widows, and lack of property rights.^[55] In this context there is minimal acceptance and respect of young girls and women and often an absence of family support, which result in a variety of context-specific versions of femicide and gender-based violence in the region: honor killings, acid burning attacks, witch-hunting, foeticide, and gender-based violence during caste and communal conflict.^[55]

The country has attempted to manage femicide through some policy enactment. India has primarily focused on creating legislation related to population control resulting in pressures to have a son. Some regions in India have incentivized parents to birth daughters by offering money to families with girls in order to offset the expenses associated with having a daughter.^[56] However, there have been research studies analysing femicide policy, specifically in relation to India, that have found "the criminalization of sex selection has not been successful."^[57]

China[]

Female infanticide was common in traditional China where natural hardships such as famines reinforced cultural norms favoring sons and encouraged hard-pressed families to abandon or kill their infant daughters.^[58] Furthermore, daughters became liabilities because gender was also crucial to the system of ancestor worship in which only sons were allowed to carry out ritual sacrifices. Thus, "if a couple failed to produce a son, its crucial links to the past and future were broken".^[58]

In present-day China, despite official condemnation and outrage, female infanticide continues. In late 1982, the Chinese press was the first to indicate that female infanticide was being practiced as the final option to circumvent the one-child policy.^[58] An expert from the City University of New York, however, disagrees with the tendency to characterize female infanticide as "the unfortunate consequence of Chinese population control and modernization policies".^[59] She defines female infanticide as "part of a crime of gender" which she refers to as "social femicide" and relates it to the broader problem of gender inequality in Chinese society.^[59]

Turkey[]

A gender-based discriminatory notion of so-called "honor" is sometimes the cause of serious cases of health deterioration or mutilation among women in Turkey. According to the Report on Custom and Honor Killings by the country's General Directorate of Security, 1,028 custom and honor killings were committed between the years of 2003 and 2007.^[60] It is important however that according to the World Data Bank femicide rates that Turkey has 0.9 women died of women violence per 100k people. Which ranks it the same femicide rate as Istanbul-convention ratifiers such as Germany & Austria^[61] Since 2019 Turkeys femicide rate have seen a significant drop of 44,9%^[62]

According to the data of the General Directorate of Security covering killings in Turkey until 2007, honor killings happen predominantly in the Southeastern part of the country. The rates of murderers born in Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia are much higher than murderers born in other regions. With 24% of the murderers born in Southeastern Anatolia and 21% in Eastern Anatolia, they share the top spot. While in comparison, only 8% of the murderers are born in the Marmara region. Even though that region has the highest rate of honor killings, which means that the killings are primarily committed by people born outside that region.^[63] The reason behind this is the fact that honor killings are still receiving support in Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia. According to a survey in Diyarbakir, a city in Southeastern Anatolia, 40% of the respondents supported honor killing.^[64] In some court cases this has led the court to decide to send the entire family to prison. For example, in 2009, an entire Kurdish family was sent to prison for life because they were involved in the honor killing of their daughter, who got pregnant after being raped.^[65]

In 2020, 300 women died as a result of femicide in Turkey, which is 174 less than the year before^[66]

South Korea[]

The Seocho-dong public toilet murder case, commonly known as the Gangnam Station murder case or the Gangnam Station femicide, occurred at the public restroom of a karaoke bar in Seoul on 17 May 2016 has been identified as a type of femicide.

Australia[]

In 2019, a recent statistic^[67] from the Australian Institute of Criminology indicated that on average, one woman a week is murdered in an act of femicide in Australia.^[68]

Europe[]

In Europe, agencies have funded initiatives on gender and violence but not specifically on femicide. Research is in its infancy and uncoordinated. A COST Action IS1206^[1] has established the first pan-European coalition on femicide with researchers who are already studying the phenomenon nationally to advance research clarity, agree on definitions, improve the efficacy of policies for femicide prevention, and publish guidelines for the use of national policy-makers.^[23] EU reports show that additional support has been needed during the period of pandemic lockdown in many countries ^[70]

Available data are limited: Eurostat covers only 20 countries^[71] and there are discrepancies in the way in which the data is collected. According to available data in Western Europe, the average annual rate is 0.4 victims of femicide for every 100,000 women. The worst situations are found in Montenegro, Lithuania and Latvia. In most countries, the partner is the most common perpetrator. However, there are exceptions: in Lithuania and Bosnia and Herzegovina, most femicides are committed by family members. Also, while male victims of homicide have been in a sharp decline in recent years, the number of women murdered in Europe, not necessarily at the hands of a partner or family member, remains constant, with a slight increase from 2013 to 2015.^[72] From 2013–2017, 30 European countries joined a COST (cooperation on science and Technology) project called "femicide across Europe.^[23]

The European Union first enacted COST (Cooperation in Science and Technology), a program known as COST Action. COST Action led to four different femicide research groups: definitions, data collection, cultural issues, and advocacy and prevention. Thirty countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding with COST that promoted international efforts to address femicide and the Action program.^[73] The Istanbul Convention was a gathering of multiple independent states who had a common goal of acknowledging and addressing femicide. However, the convention "is not a treaty and not legally binding for all states" and is not an official policy.^[74]

France[]

Depending on the sources, between 122 and 149 women were killed in France in 2019 by their partners or ex-partners.^[75][76]

Germany[]

Germany has one of the highest absolute femicide numbers in Europe.^[77]

Italy[]

Statistics of femicide in Italy are reported by year (1995-2019) by the independent Women NGO .^[78]

Spain[]

Statistics and structure of femicide in Spain are reported by year (2010-2019).^[79]

Switzerland[]

In this country on average once every 15 days a woman is murdered by her male partner.^[80][81]

UK[]

Interest in reporting and analyzing levels of femicide in the UK has grown in recent years, and several national organizations provide support ^[82][83] In 2021 a project began in the UK led by one of the national newspapers to better identify femicide, to improve the knowledge of it and to encourage improved methods to end it.^[84] This included raising awareness of a Femicide Census ^[85] The organization working on the femicide census justify it because bringing data together in this way "significantly improves upon currently available data by providing detailed comparable data about femicides in the UK since 2009, including demographic and social factors and the methods men selected to kill women.  By collating femicides, we can see that these killings are not isolated incidents, and many follow repeated patterns."^[85] By taking an intersectional approach to the data campaigners, academics and journalists are able to highlight patterns of concern such as the numbers of older women being killed^[86] those killed by partners and ex-lovers ^[87][88] or those killed during lockdown.^[89]

Latin America[]

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Feminists in Latin America have been among the first to adopt the term femicide, referring to the female homicides in Juarez, Mexico. This term inspired feminists in Latin America to organize anti-femicide groups to challenge this social injustice towards women.^[90] The use of the term femicide and the creation of anti-femicide feminist organizations spread from Mexico to many other Latin American countries, like Guatemala.^[91] In Latin America, femicide is an issue that occurs in many countries, but most predominantly in Central America with countries such as El Salvador and Honduras, and other places such as Brazil and Mexico. The Latin American region includes 5 of the 12 countries with the highest rate of femicide in the world.^[92] According to Julia Estela Monárrez-Fragoso of the Colegio de la Frontera Norte based in Ciudad Juarez, victims are often blamed for being out late or hanging around "questionable" areas such as discotecas or nightclubs.^[93] Between 2000 and 2010, more than five thousand Guatemalan women and girls were murdered. Guatemala's historical record reveals a long history of acceptance of gendered violence and the military government's and judiciary's role in normalizing misogyny.^[94] In a Report on the Violations of Women's Rights in Guatemala by a United Nations Human Rights Committee, the state's failure to enforce laws protecting women from femicide is seen as highly problematic. The report argues that enforcing laws against the murder of women is a low priority of state governments because of patriarchal beliefs and assumptions about the role of women in society.^[91]

Various activists and scholars, such as Monárrez, have argued that connections exist between the femicides and neoliberal policies, namely North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). They believe that the treaty has served to open trade borders and increase foreign investment targeted at manufacturing low-cost garments in maquiladoras.^[93]

Intimate partner femicide is the most common form of femicide,^[95] and high violence and crime rates in these countries also contribute to this issue. There is a lack of an organized system to record information and statistical data to support this issue. Machismo, a history of civil wars, and other cultural influences can also contribute to this issue, specifically in Latin America. Torture, mutilation, defacement, sexual assault, and the dumping of bodies is a common trend with femicide.

It has been observed that many of the women killed in Juarez are young mothers who migrate to this region seeking employment in maquiladoras.^[93] They then become easy targets because they are separated from their family and are typically alone when traveling home. Policy solutions in Central America have tried making transportation safer (see below for policy solutions). Other scholars, such as Itallurde, point to the culpability of corporations "...based on the concepts and doctrines of tortuous negligence, failure to protect, and aiding and abetting".^[96] Other scholars, such as historians Steven Volk and Marian Schlotterbeck, hypothesize that there may be a "macho backlash" behind these killings: "Certainly male egos, of fathers and would-be boyfriends, must suffer some deflation from this dramatic change in the economic influence of these young women."^[97][98]

The Mexican Supreme Court in 2015 required the police to reopen and investigate a murder case from a femicide "perspective".^[99]

However, there have been some actions taken to address this issue. The criminalization of femicide and various laws passed in specific countries have aimed to stop this problem. In addition, the United Nations has taken a role in stopping this with a commission that calls for action to be taken. There is a growing social awareness around this issue with #NiUnaMenos (Not One Woman Less) or #NiUnaMas (Not One More Woman). Lastly, Female friendly urban zones have been created as a concrete solution. These zones include female-only transportation and government centers offering services specifically for women.

Central American policymakers have experimented with creating "female-friendly urban zones" over the past decade.^[100] "Pink" public transportation networks have been established in Mexico, Brazil, El Salvador, and Guatemala to provide women-only forms of public transportation to stem sexual harassment and provide safety for women. These efforts have received substantial praise and criticism.^[100]

Criticism from feminists and others often point to the efficacy of gender segregation in changing gender norms of oppression - specifically the Latin American cultural conventions of "machismo" and "marianismo," which are potent social regulators throughout the region.^[100]

Mexico[]

Amnesty International estimates that there have been around 34,000 female homicides in Mexico between 1986 and 2009.^[56] According to the National Citizen Observatory on Femicide, only 49 percent of the 800 cases of women killed in Mexico between June and July 2017 were investigated as femicide.^[101] One activist, Natalia Reyes, reported that only 8 percent of femicides in Mexico are punished.^[102] Almost 35,000 people were murdered in 2019,^[103] Mexico’s most violent year on record. Additionally, in 2012, Mexico was ranked as the 16th country in the world with the highest rates of femicides.^[104]

In the years 2011 to 2016, there was an average of 7.6 female homicides per day.^[105] In 2016, Mexico had a rate of female homicides of 4.6 femicides per 100,000, and there were a total of 2,746 female deaths with the presumption of homicide.^[105] In this year, the top three states with the highest rates of female deaths with the presumption of homicide were Colima (with 16.3 deaths per 100,000 women), Guerrero (13.1 per 100,000), and Zacatecas (9.7 per 100,000).^[105] The top three municipalities in 2016 were Acapulco de Juárez (24.22 per 100,000), Tijuana (10.84 per 100,000), and Juárez (10.36 per 100,000). During the years 2002–2010, the state of Chihuahua had the highest rate of female homicides in the world: 58.4 per 100,000.^[56] The rates of femicide in the municipality of Juárez have decreased significantly in just five years; in 2011, the rate of female deaths with the presumption of homicides was 31.49 per 100,000, and by 2016 it had decreased to 10.36 per 100,000.^[105]

Brazil[]

Femicide is a crime provided for in the Brazilian Penal Code, item VI, paragraph 2, of art. 121, when committed "against a woman on grounds of female condition".^[106] The Paragraph 2-A, of art. 121, complements the section by stating that there are reasons of female condition when the crime involves domestic and family violence or contempt or discrimination against women. The penalty for this crime is 12 to 30 years in prison.^[107]

Colombia[]

Colombia has followed 16 other Latin American Countries by passing a law defining and punishing femicide for being a specific crime.^[108] On July 6, 2015 the government of Colombia passed a law that legally defines femicide as a crime with 20 to 50 years of jail time.^[109] This new law is named after Rosa Elvira Cely, a Colombian woman who was raped and murdered in 2012.^[109] Cely's death sparked national outrage and caused thousands to march down the streets of Bogota. Her murderer was found guilty and sentenced to 48 years in prison. The challenge now becomes implementing the law. Miguel Emilio La Rota, head of public policy and planning at Colombia's attorney general's office, said that the prosecutor's office must change how it investigates femicide.^[110] Colombia prosecuted a transgender woman's murder as a femicide for the first time in 2018, sentencing Davinson Stiven Erazo Sánchez to twenty years in a psychiatric center for "aggravated femicide" a year after he killed Anyela Ramos Claros, a transgender woman.^[111]

El Salvador[]

In El Salvador, an endeavor has been made to create multiple government centers that house many gender-specific services in one place to cut down on commute time and increase the physical safety of women as they seek services such as counseling, child care, and reproductive health.^[100] "The first center hopes to provide access to an estimated 162,000 women from the neighboring departments of La Libertad and Sonsonate. Supported by former Chilean president and head of UN Women Michelle Bachelet, the initiative cost $3.2 million, with an additional $20 million loan from the Inter-American Development Bank earmarked for the construction of new sites."^[100]

Critics of this action point to the contradictory abortion laws in El Salvador that are some of the harshest in the world: abortion is completely illegal even to save the life of a mother or to help a survivor of incest or rape. "Coupled with the judicial system's weaknesses, violence is abetted by the same government that aims to protect and defend. High levels of impunity leave many crimes unresolved or unreported."^[100]

Guatemala[]

Guatemala has championed the use of femicide as a concept by incorporating the term in its constitution: Decree 22. Lawmakers in this country passed Decree 22 in 2008 that defined Laws Against Femicide and Other Forms of Violence Against Women. These laws include 28 articles about prosecutable types of violence against women. They also created the Office of the Presidential Commission Against Femicide, enforcing the concept in the government and an anti-femicide unit of the National Police. Some results of the laws have proved encouraging, allowing many women to now report violence perpetrated against them. In the first month of 2010, a total of 27,000 women reported violence against them to the state, a large increase in the number of reported crimes. The laws also have helped several people jail their assailants and have increased the severity of punishments for perpetrators. However, the actual enforcement of the new laws has been varied.^[112] Few offenders are ever actually convicted for the specific crime of femicide, and there are only three public prosecution offices in the entire country able to deal with the issue of femicide.^[113] In fact, only 127 convictions in 2010 occurred for female violence even though 46,000 cases overall were registered. Also, from 2000–2008, 98 percent of all femicide cases have remained in impunity. Some feminists argue that the culture in Guatemala is to blame. They cite that many male judges and other male government officials are sympathetic to the view that men's actions are justified because they remain within the private sphere of the home. Attorney Romeo Silverio Gonzalez argued for this viewpoint when he stated that the new laws of Decree 22 were unconstitutional. He said that the laws were in contradiction to the private affairs of marriage. Attorney General Claudia Paz countered his viewpoint, ultimately defending the laws by justifying their existence because they protect women's rights. Overall, the legislation of these new laws has helped Guatemala improve the awareness of femicide and reporting of the crime, but enforcement and justice for femicide still have not been achieved.^[114] Femicide as the socially tolerated murder of women in Guatemala relies on the presence of systematic impunity, historically rooted gender inequalities, and the pervasive normalization of violence as a social relation.^[94]

North America[]

United States[]

Femicide in the United States accounts for the deaths of more than five women daily and 70% of the total among high-income countries.^[115][116] One of the largest predictors of femicide in the United States is the appearance of physical abuse, which was found in 79% of all femicide cases in North Carolina.^[117] Gun availability in the United States has also had a substantial effect on femicide, correlating to 67.9% of deaths in a study by Karen D. Stout.^[14] Living in neighborhoods with increased poverty, ethnic heterogeneity and decreased collective efficacy (social cohesion among neighbors) are all found to be linked to increased femicide rates in that area.^[118] Also, reporting of female victims of femicide in the US is stymied due to the assumption that female victims are not an anomaly, but are driven by their perceived vulnerability and passivity.^[14]

Canada[]

Proper statistics of femicide in Canada can be difficult to come across since possible acts of femicide are regularly labelled as the killing of a spouse.^[119] However, femicide is a widespread violent act that takes place in countries all over the world and Canada is no exception.^[120] In 2019, there was a total of 678 homicides Canada-wide, of these cases 144 of the victims were female.^[121] Additionally, the rate at which female victims were killed by a spouse or intimate partner, was over 8 times greater than the number of males killed by a spouse or intimate partner.^[121]

Historically speaking, less data exists regarding femicide in Canada; however, what is available shows a disproportionate amount of violence and femicide towards Indigenous women. Reports of the last few decades indicate over 600 murders of Indigenous females in Canada.^[122] Unfortunately, in many cases homicidal acts towards Indigenous females often aren’t characterized as femicides,^[122] indicating that not all victims of femicide are treated in the same framework.^[123] Yet the research indicates that certain ethnic groups are at a greater risk for femicide compared to the rest of the population.^[119] To understand these statistics in Canada, an intersectional approach must be considered to recognize the historical and ongoing effects of colonialism that disproportionately target Indigenous peoples within the country. Canada’s continued negligence as a state to examine the effects of colonialism on Indigenous peoples has related to the high risk of femicide and violence for Indigenous women and girls.^[123] Failure to acknowledge the deaths of Indigenous women ignores the decades of inequality and injustice that have and continue to be perpetuated by colonialism.  

Colonialism produces a sense of dominant authoritative power that allows for the disregard of Indigenous individuals and, in this case, a disregard for the murders of Indigenous females. Indigenous women are reported to be five times more likely to experience violence and death compared with other groups in Canada.^[122] These murders are acts of racialized violence in addition to the gendered violence of femicide. However, more often than not, these murders are regarded as a spousal homicide^[119] rather than femicide, disregarding the violence and oppression Indigenous females face. In the mid-twentieth century, Indigenous women and girls were forced and coerced into undergoing sterilization procedures as an act of femicide at fourteen different Indian Hospitals across the state that were federally operated.^[124] Sterilization policies were implemented as a way to reduce the size and influence of Indigenous communities, resulting in there being about 1200 cases of forced or coerced sterilization that directly targeted the reproduction rights and properties of Indigenous women and girls.^[125] Exclusionary politics and legal discrimination throughout the history of Canada, means that the violence faced by Indigenous women and girls has gone unacknowledged, serving to further state-controlled colonial power over Indigenous peoples.^[122] The scattered reports of femicide in Canada indicate a lack of understanding of how various acts of gender, race, class, and sexuality all intersect to create the environment of violence Indigenous women are subjected to.^[122] While femicide in Canada affects all women, it disproportionately targets the lives of Indigenous women and girls due to historical and ongoing actions of colonialism within the state.  

One prominent instance of femicide occurring in Canada is the 2018 Toronto Van Attack, which saw multiple casualties and many injured. The motive was later determined to be due to an incel-led group motivated to harm female civilians.

United Nations[]

In 2013, the United Nations General Assembly updated their policy by recognizing that "gender-related killing of women and girls was criminalized in some countries as "femicide" or "feminicide" and has been incorporated as such into national legislation in those countries." Currently, Dr. Dubravka Šimonović is the Special Rapporteur to the UN. She has been an advocate of anti-femicide policy implementation. She has presented the UN with reports such as ‘Modalities for the establishment of femicides/gender-related killings.’ Dr. Šimonović has also proposed a "femicide watch" program to monitor femicide practices across the globe. The goal of Simonovic's academic program is to analyze data on femicide cases to identify risk factors and any issues in public policy.^[126]

Legal solutions[]

Today, millions of females around the world are killed as a result of intentional killings towards them. Solutions to this problem include making laws and policies for violence against women. Techniques that can be developed include crime prevention policies that are aimed at domestic and family violence. Additionally, countries worldwide should consider developing the status of women in their countries and create laws on gender equality.^[127] For example, in Latin America there have been many new laws to label the murders of women as femicide or feminicide. Femicide is defined as the killing of a woman by a man based on misogyny. At the same time, feminicide goes beyond this definition and implicates the state's complicity in maintaining violence against women. These changes have been made due to global human rights norms, like the 1994 Inter-American Convention on the Prevention and the Eradication of Violence against Women, which expresses that gender violence is the state's responsibility. Nevertheless, these international norms are not regulated. They do not implement how a state should exercise new laws and policies to enforce violence against women.

Some countries have passed laws belonging to femicide or crimes labeled as feminicides. In Mexico and Nicaragua, female activists became involved in legal activism so their state could increase responsibility for female violence. During a small political opportunity with a strict regime in Nicaragua, Femicide resulted from the countries' responsiveness to feminist demands. In Mexico, feminicides became successful because of good campaigning by local feminists connected to national arenas and through the intervention of feminist federal legislators. A known Mexican female activist, Marcela Lagarde, saw the rise of women being murdered in Mexico and demanded that the state take responsibility for the killings. She brought in the concept of femicide (the murder of females through violence and the state as complicit), which quickly spread to Latin America, and as of 2017, femicide and feminicide became crimes in 18 countries.^[128]

Film[]

A 2019 German documentary by Karen Naundorf with the title Frauen gegen Männer-Gewalt or in the French version La révolte des femmes (English: Women Against Male Violence) shows the effect of violence and murder targeted towards women in Argentina. The film was made freely available to watch on arte.tv, from 25 October 2019 to 8 October 2022.^[129]

See also[]

References[]

External links[]

• "Female Genocide in India" in Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific Issue 22, October 2009