Femicide: The Role of Gender in Patterns of Lethal Violence

• In Event: Plenary 3 - Saturday

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed an increase in attention to femicide, or the killing of women because of their gender. In current political and policy debates, this term has been loosely applied to refer to female homicide victimization. In such debates, female homicides are frequently equated with intimate partner homicides, resulting from long-term abuse, control and misogynistic motives. In this presentation, I delve deeper into the role of gender in female homicide in Europe by examining individual-level data in six European countries: Denmark, Finland, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland. In addition, I question to what extent female homicide victimization in Europe constitutes a unique phenomenon, by comparing it to male homicide victimization. The heterogeneity of female homicide victimization forces us to re-think female homicide prototypes and associated interventions.

Author

• Marieke Liem, Leiden University