Femicide is a terrible reality of the modern world, which is hard to believe. The coronavirus pandemic has exposed health problems around the world and the problem of gender-based violence: many thousands of women were isolated along with male tyrants without the opportunity to leave. It is necessary to talk about this problem to prevent the death of women due to misogyny or domestic violence.
There are several types of femicide: intimate and in the name of “honor.” The peculiarity of intimate femicide is that the killer of a woman is a current or ex-husband or boyfriend. According to research conducted by WHO and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (Garcia-Moreno, Guedes, & Knerr, 2012), “more than 35% of all murders of women globally are reported to be committed by an intimate partner”. It should be mentioned that only 5% of men were killed by a close partner (Garcia-Moreno, Guedes, & Knerr, 2012). The percentage of intimate femicide is high in Canada, the United States, Russia, Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine. Studies show that women are more likely to kill their partners due to a quarrel or conflict, while men are more likely to do it because of jealousy.
The second type of femicide is murder “in the name of honor,” which includes an aggressive reaction of family members in response to a woman’s “inappropriate” behavior. According to Garcia-Moreno, Guedes, & Knerr (2012), a man can kill a woman for infidelity, pregnancy out of wedlock, or even for being raped. Every year there are about 5,000 murders “in the name of honor,” and they are most typical for the Middle East and South Asia. Also, such murders often occur in migrant communities, like Australia, Europe, and North America (Garcia-Moreno, Guedes, & Knerr, 2012). Unfortunately, femicide in the name of honor is often considered a cultural tradition of certain people and not as a manifestation of cruelty towards a woman.
There are studies aimed at studying the factors that increase or decrease the chances of femicide. However, the fact is that most of the research concerns only intimate femicide, and therefore the results cannot be applied to “in the name of honor” murders (Garcia-Moreno, Guedes, & Knerr, 2012). Violence is influenced by factors at four levels: individual, family, social, social/structural. At the individual level, among the factors that increase the risk of perpetrating femicide, the following can be highlighted: unemployment, possession of firearms (USA, South Africa), problems with alcohol or drugs, psychiatric issues.
Among the factors of the individual level that increase the chance of becoming a victim of femicide, pregnancy and humiliation during pregnancy can be distinguished (USA, Mozambique, Maharashtra). At the family level of relations, previous violent cases against an intimate partner can push to commit femicide. For a victim of femicide, the reasons may be the following: prior experience of violence by a man, having a child from another relationship, emotional distance, attempts to end this relationship. At the level of society, gender inequality has a strong impact and low state payments.
It is worth mentioning the factors that reduce the risk of femicide: higher education and separate housing availability at the individual level. At the general level, the elements are as follows: an increase in the number of police officers, a ban on access to firearms for those who have been convicted of domestic violence, as well as protection of victims of domestic violence at the legislative level (Garcia-Moreno, Guedes, & Knerr, 2012).
It is necessary to develop ways to stop femicide carefully. First, it is possible to strengthen supervision and checks regarding intimate partner violence, improve the methods of collecting and analyzing data on deaths, and divide them by gender (Garcia-Moreno, Guedes, & Knerr, 2012). If a murder has been committed, the documents that would prove the relationship between the criminal and the victim are required. It is also necessary to improve health workers’ skills in identifying domestic partner violence and the risk of femicide to recognize the problem.
Reference
Garcia-Moreno, C., Guedes, A., & Knerr, W. (2012). Understanding and addressing violence against women. World Health Organization.