Feminicide (murders of women): definition, types and causes

This type of homicide is one of the most violent and serious forms of expression of machismo.

Inequality and gender violence are recurrent in the history of societies. With the advance of feminist movements these issues have acquired much greater visibility than they had a few decades ago in much of the world.

In this article we will define the different types of femicideThe most extreme consequence of gender violence, and we will analyze its causes from a psychosocial perspective.

What is femicide?

The term "femicide" refers to a specific type of homicide in which a male murders a woman, girl or girl because she is female. Unlike other types of murder, feminicides often occur in the home as a result of gender-based violence.. They are also categorized as hate crimes, given that they occur in a context in which the feminine has been stigmatized for years.

The word "femicide" is in dispute; there are authors who affirm that it includes any murder whose victim is a woman, regardless of the gender of the perpetrator or his or her motivations.

Femicide is is the most extreme manifestation of abuse and violence of abuse and violence by men against women. It occurs as a consequence of any type of gender violence, such as physical aggression, rape, forced maternity or genital mutilation.

Facts and statistics

It is estimated that every year around 66,000 femicides are perpetrated in the world each year.. However, it should be borne in mind that the number of cases of gender-based violence tends to be underestimated and that many countries do not differentiate between homicides and femicides.

While 80% of murder victims are men, when we speak specifically of family or intimate homicide the percentage of men drops to one third. This is one of the factors that explain why femicide needs to be distinguished from other murders. needs to be distinguished from other murders.

The countries with the highest rates of femicide are El Salvador, Jamaica, Guatemala, South Africa and Russia. More than half of the 25 countries with the highest rate of femicide are in the Americas; in addition to those mentioned, the list includes Honduras, Colombia, Bolivia, Venezuela, Brazil and the Dominican Republic.

Motivations of the murderer

Motivation for the crime is one of the main peculiarities of femicide in relation to other types of homicide.

According to Diana Russell, who is credited with popularizing the word "femicide" ("femicide"), some of the main motivations for these murders are anger, hatred, jealousy and pleasure-seeking. are anger, hatred, jealousy and the search for pleasure.

Other variables that Russell considers relevant are misogyny, a sense of gender superiority and the conception of women as possessions. These variables are transmitted culturally and favor men's violence towards women.

On the other hand, the murders of women within the couple are also statistically linked to the consumption of alcohol or other drugs by the murderer, although these actions cannot be attributed solely to a purely biochemical phenomenon.

Types of femicide

Diana Russell and other authors have proposed different types of femicide that differ mainly in the relationship between the victim and the killer and in the motivation for the crime. in the relationship between the victim and the murderer and in the motivation for the crime.

1. Intimate and familial

While familial femicides are committed by men within their close or extended family within their immediate or extended familyThe concept of "intimate femicide" is often used to refer to the murder of a partner or ex-partner, regardless of the legal relationship between the two persons.

Intimate femicide is related to the consumption of alcohol and other substances and accounts for 35% of all murders of women (not only those committed by men), making it the most frequent of all types of femicide.

Honor killing is a special type of femicide that is committed against women of the same sex as men. committed against women who are said to have dishonored the family. The most common reasons for "dishonor" include being a victim of rape and being accused of adultery.

Dowry murders are also perpetrated in India, Iran, Pakistan and Bangladesh. After marriage, the husband's family harasses and tortures the wife as a method of extortion for a higher dowry. In these cases the woman may be driven to suicide or killed, often burned alive when her family does not agree to pay.

2. Lesbicide

It is not difficult to find historical periods in which the murder of women as punishment for being homosexual was legal. For example, in 13th century France, a law was passed according to which women were to have a limb amputated the first two times they had sex with women, while the third time they were to be burned.

A similar crime and often linked to lesbianism is corrective rapeThe practice of sexually abusing a homosexual woman in order to make her behave as if she were heterosexual or simply as a punishment. It is a way of trying to impose a supposed "natural order" through violence and power.

Today homosexuality in both women and men is still condemned by most religions and is illegal in countries such as Iran, Libya, India, Pakistan, Morocco and Nigeria. These conditions favor violence against homosexual people, as they legitimize it from thebecause it is legitimized by institutions.

3. Racial Feminicide

In racial femicides the gender component is added to an ethnic factor: in these cases the murderer kills the victim both because she is a woman and because she is a man.In these cases the murderer kills the victim both because she is a woman and because she has cultural and physical traits different from his own. It is a mixture of elements that generate hatred in a totally irrational way, although culturally induced by historical dynamics of discrimination.

In this type of murder, racism not only influences the commission of the crime, but also the fact that the victim is of a less socially valued ethnicity can interfere in the resolution of the case, in the legal process and in the image that the media gives of the deceased.

4. Serial Femicide

This type of femicide usually occurs when a male kills women repeatedly for sadistic sexual pleasure. sadistic. In general, these murders are caused by trauma or asphyxiation.

Victims of serial femicide, like other non-intimate femicides, are most often women who work as waitresses or prostitutes.

Serial femicide is sometimes attributed to pornography, especially pornography that eroticizes violence. From a gender perspective, this may be due to the normalization of violence that occurs in these fiction pieces. However, this relationship has not been demonstrated for the moment. It is likely that the use of these materials is not a predisposing factor to the commission of the crimes, but is part of the preparation process through the act of fantasizing about rape and murder.

Psychological explanations of gender violence

Although gender violence and femicide could be explained in very different ways from different theoretical orientations, we will focus on two examples: symbolic interactionism and evolutionary psychology.

Symbolic interactionism and patriarchy

Symbolic interactionism is a theoretical current in sociology, social psychology, and anthropology that proposes that people We jointly construct symbols that give meaning to reality in its different aspects, guiding our behavior in relation to them. in its different aspects, guiding our behavior in relation to them.

From this perspective, femicide could be explained as a consequence of the differences in the roles assigned to each gender. differences in the roles assigned to each gender by many societies. It is understood that the public sphere should be controlled by men and women are relegated to reproduction and care of the home.

This social structure is often referred to as "patriarchy".It is based on written laws and/or implicit norms that reinforce and condition patterns of behavior differentiated according to Biological sex.

According to sociologist Sylvia Walby, patriarchal structures are manifested in women's greater likelihood of being abused, of taking care of the home and children, of being portrayed with little fidelity in the media and popular culture, of being paid less than men for the same work, and of having their sexuality viewed negatively. They also tend to be underrepresented in areas of power and decision-making.

The conception of women as inferior to men makes the social significance of these murders social meaning of these killings is less negative in more patriarchal environments. in more patriarchal environments. From this it could be deduced that there is a greater probability of gender violence and therefore femicide if the law and culture do not criminalize them.

Is this the result of a historical process?

The concept of patriarchy serves to introduce a very relevant dimension to the conception of the problem of femicide. It is not an isolated problem that can be reduced simply to the violent tendencies of some individuals, but has to do with the situation of submission of the female gender and the dominance of the male gender.

Thus, this inherited vulnerability this inherited vulnerability and of economic, political and social causes, is concretized in the deaths of helpless people, who do not see their rights protected by the society in which they live, given that it protects privileges that have nothing to do with the way of life of most women. As a result, femicide should be analyzed from a gender perspective.

Evolutionist and biologist perspectives

Differences in gender roles are often attributed to the biology of men and women. In particular, it is often mentioned that men have higher levels of testosterone and that women have higher levels of testosterone.a sex hormone that influences aggressiveness, dominance and risk-taking. However, it has not been shown that hormonal differences are responsible for differences in the behavior of men and women.

It has also been proposed that the fact that it is women who become pregnant historically influenced the development of societies since the beginning of mankind, especially since the adoption of sedentary lifestyles.

From these perspectives biological differences between genders tend to be between genders tend to be highly valued, to the detriment of socio-cultural influences, such as religion. In any case, it is assumed that violence against women in general, and specifically murders in which women are the victims, cannot be explained solely on the basis of the analysis of biological categories such as genes or hormonal differences. This is because although there are clear physical differences between the sexes, any behavioral pattern incorporates a prior learning history that strongly influences its appearance and the way it is expressed.

What can be done?

The measures to be taken to fight against femicides cannot concentrate on just one of the focuses of the problem, because everything starts from a problem with several levels of complexity: psychological, psycho-social, and socio-political.

Therefore, everything must go through changes at the individual (development of prevention and mental health programs) and collective levels. The latter not only involve changes in culture and sensitivity to the violence suffered by many women, but also include material and objective measures: urban planning that promotes safe streets, prison policies that protect victims, etc.