FEMICIDE: CAUSES, TYPES, CONSEQUENCES AND PREVENTION - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The femicide is a hate crime based on sex, which is defined as the intentional killing of women or girls just by the fact of being. It is a term that was coined in 1976 by feminist author Diana EH Russell. From this moment on, its use to refer to certain types of crimes began to become popular.

The concept of femicide is quite controversial, because it infers the criminals' motivation to commit an attack, in many cases without having proof of why they have attacked their victims. Thus, some of his detractors believe that these crimes should not be distinguished from other types of murder.

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However, currents such as feminism emphasize the need to study femicide as a separate phenomenon. Generally, this term is used to refer to murders within the scope of the intimate partner; that is, to mortal aggressions suffered by women at the hands of their boyfriends, husbands, or ex-partners.

There is not much research on femicide; but those that have been carried out seem to indicate that, while the number of murders in general is decreasing worldwide, femicides are either continuing in number or are increasing gradually.

Causes

There is no universally accepted definition of what femicide is; nor are there empirical studies that allow us to affirm with total certainty what are the causes of this phenomenon. However, from currents of thought such as feminism, various explanations have developed over the years.

Probably the most accepted version of what feminicide is and why it occurs is that created by Diana Russell, the author who first coined the term. This activist said that femicide is the murder of women and girls simply for the sake of it. Russell argued that this phenomenon could appear for very different reasons.

Thus, among other causes, the author identified misogyny (hatred towards women), the feeling of superiority towards women, the search for sexual pleasure, jealousy within the couple, or the belief of some men that a woman is his property.

In some of his later writings, Russell also included within the definition of feminicide the murders committed in some cultures (such as India or China) due to the preference of male babies; and even the deaths of women related to the criminalization of abortion or female genital mutilation.

Femicide as part of a continuum

Diana Russell did not believe that the murder of women for the sake of being one occurred in a vacuum. On the contrary, she thought that femicide was part of a much larger social problem, involving violence and abuse against women in a systematic and widespread way.

Thus, Russell thought that the vast majority of societies encourage all kinds of attacks on women, such as physical and verbal abuse, rape, sexual slavery (especially in the form of prostitution), sexual harassment, genital mutilation, forced motherhood, and the imposition of certain standards of female behavior.

In this way, for this author, femicide should be distinguished from other types of murders because it would be supported by a whole culture that encourages hatred and aggression towards women.

Other visions of femicide

As we have already said, although Russell's vision is the predominant one on this issue, there are other ways of understanding femicide. In fact, the lack of scientific evidence on key concepts of this author's theory makes some researchers question the existence of this phenomenon or its prevalence.

One of the biggest problems with this theory is that it assumes that attacks on women are produced mainly for sexist reasons; that is, simply because they are women. This is extremely difficult to prove, especially since hardly any studies have been done on the subject.

Thus, some authors consider that it is necessary to change the definition of femicide to include all those aggressions that are committed by a man towards a woman, especially in the area of ​​the intimate partner. In this way, the need to know the motivation behind the aggressive behavior would be eliminated.

Other researchers, on the contrary, believe that violence against women simply because it is women is not very prevalent; and that the majority of crimes of this type would occur due to other causes, such as jealousy, aggressiveness, certain dynamics in intimate relationships, or the existence of psychological problems.

In any case, it is necessary to carry out more research on the subject in order to fully understand the causes of feminicide. This is especially important, because only by understanding why exactly this phenomenon occurs, can effective solutions for it be developed.

Types

Many authors consider that there is not a single type of femicide, but on the contrary, there would be several depending on the specific causes that lead to the murder of a woman. In all of them the gender issue would be present, but others would also appear that would vary depending on the case.

Next we will see what are the most common types of femicide. It is necessary to bear in mind that in all cases it is considered that the aggressor can only be a man.

Intimate feminicide

This classification would refer to the murders of women committed mainly by their partners or former partners. However, in some cases the definition is broadened to also include all those in which the aggressor is another member of the family, such as a father, brother or son.

Some studies suggest that up to 75% of murders of women occur in the sphere of the family or intimate partner. In addition, women have a much higher probability of being assaulted by someone in their close circle than men. Therefore, intimate feminicide is one of the most important types.

Non-intimate feminicide

Non-intimate femicides are those in which the aggressor did not have a direct relationship with the victim. There are basically two types: femicide of a sexual nature, and serial murders.

In feminicides of a sexual nature, the murder would occur at the same time as a rape or other type of aggression of this kind. It is considered that, for a murder of this type to be considered femicide, the main motivation of the aggressor must be the fact that his victim is a woman.

In serial murders, the main motivation would be hatred of women or misogyny. In this way, the aggressor would seek out female victims and attack them for no other reason than their gender.

Femicide because of honor

In some cultures, the behavior of members of a family has a direct impact on the "honor" of all members of the family.

Thus, when a woman behaves in "unacceptable" ways (for example, by having premarital sex or by dressing inappropriately), her relatives may choose to murder her to solve the problem.

This type of femicide occurs mainly in non-Western cultures; and the ways of carrying out the punishment are very varied. Often, for example, the victim's family members decide to stone her, burn her alive or stab her to restore the honor they perceive they have lost due to her behavior.

Femicide due to sexual orientation or gender identity

Some researchers consider that a different type of femicide is one whose victims are women belonging to the LGBT community. In these cases, the theory says that the murders would occur due to a mixture of gender motives, and homophobia or transphobia, depending on the case.

It is known that homosexual or transsexual women are more likely to be assaulted and killed. In some cultures, even these crimes are committed as "punishment" for the victim for violating the social norm of heterosexuality.

Female infanticide

Finally, perhaps one of the most terrible types of femicide is that whose victims are little girls, who are murdered because they belong to the female sex. This would mainly occur in cultures in which men are valued far above women.

Thus, for example, in societies such as the Chinese or the Muslim, some families would decide to murder their daughters so as not to have to bear the "burden" of having to raise a woman. Fortunately, this type of crime has decreased considerably in recent decades.

Consequences

Numerous studies show that the majority of homicide victims within the intimate sphere are women. Although the number of deaths is not as high as that found in other areas, it is still high enough that it is a problem that needs to be solved.

It is estimated that around 66,000 women are violently murdered each year. The rate of femicide varies greatly from country to country, the region where this problem occurs most is Latin America. Thus, of the 25 states in which there are more murders of women per year, 50% of them belong to this area.

The World Health Organization considers that the murder of women for the fact of being women is one of the main causes of premature death among people of the female sex around the world. Due to this, the vast majority of developed countries are trying to find solutions to this problem, with greater or lesser success.

Prevention

Solving the problem of femicide is extremely complicated. On the one hand, there are hardly any studies that differentiate between different types of violence against women, so the reasons that lead some men to kill their partners, relatives or even strangers are not known for sure.

In this sense, the first thing that would be necessary to do would be to try to understand the causes behind the murders of women around the world. Only in this way will it be possible to carry out truly effective intervention programs that help prevent them and reduce their incidence throughout the world.

Protection for victims of intimate partner violence

On the other hand, as we have already seen, it is known that the majority of cases of murders of women occur within the sphere of the intimate partner.

Although some of them occur unintentionally (known as "crimes of passion"), other cases arise as a consequence of an escalation of increasingly serious violent acts.

Thus, it is known that in a high percentage of cases of domestic abuse, women run a much higher risk of being killed by their partners. Due to this, in most developed countries great efforts are made to protect the victims of this phenomenon and prevent them from being defenseless against their abusers.

Among other things, many states spend a large amount of public money to promote resources such as hotlines for victims, shelters for battered women, or social intervention programs to deal with this problem.

In addition, in Spain there is a law, the Comprehensive Law of Gender Violence, which aims to reduce the cases of femicide by applying a series of rules and regulations that are not found in any other country in the world. However, this law is quite controversial, because the number of murders has not decreased since it came into force.

Education

Finally, from ideological currents such as feminism, it is believed that the murders of women for the fact of being women could be solved simply by educating the abusers from childhood in an appropriate way.

In this sense, many efforts are being made in areas such as the education system or television to try to make society aware of the problem posed by violence against women. Hopefully, if this approach works, year after year the number of cases of femicides that occur will decrease.

References

1. "Forms of femicide" in: Learning Network. Retrieved on: February 25, 2019 from Learning Network: vawlearningnetwork.ca.
2. "Types of femicide" in: Femicide. Retrieved on: February 25, 2019 from Feminicide: feminicidio.net.
3. "Types of femicide" in: Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability. Retrieved on: February 25, 2019 from Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability: femicideincanada.ca.
4. "What is femicide and how to identify it?" in: Government of Mexico. Retrieved on: February 25, 2019 from the Government of Mexico: gob.mx.
5. "Femicide" in: Wikipedia. Retrieved on: February 25, 2019 from Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org.