Femicide or feminicide refers to violence against women ranging from physical, sexual, and emotional harassment. It may also be in the form of threats and intimidation by either male partners, ex-partners or female family members. The cases of femicides reported in the United States have been increasing since the 1970s. As of 2019, about 1,800 women and girls were killed by men in the United States (Statistica, 2018). The term femicide was coined by Diana Russell, a South African feminist activist, in 1976. Russell used the term to rally behind all her people to condemn the killings of women by men. Although cases of femicide are experienced in every country around the world, they are rampant in Latin America. The factors that increase the rate of femicide include unemployment, mental health problems, forcing sexual intercourse on a partner, alcoholism, and gun ownership (Statistica, 2018). The following sections give a detailed discussion of femicide on the factors that reduce femicide, how the empowerment of women can spearhead economic development, and the theories and model of femicide. Read more

Statement of the problem

Femicide, or the killing of a woman or a girl by a man because of her gender. It is considered the highest expression of gender-based violence. Intimate femicide is a common and prevalent type of femicide (Messerschmidt, 2017). Intimate femicide is perpetuated by the current or former husband or boyfriend accounts for about 35 percent of all cases of femicides globally (Messerschmidt, 2017). Honor-related femicide is the second most common type of femicide. This entails women’s murder by men following issues such as adultery, a pregnancy outside marriage, and sexual transgression. This evil against women should be condemned with the strongest terms possible because it abuses and violates human rights. The lives of women matter as much as men’s lives do, and thus this evil should be dealt with once and for all. Femicides cause loss of lives, trauma, and poor health among women and therefore, something should be made urgently (Messerschmidt, 2017).

Objectives which is to reduce femicide

Reduction of femicide cases is the most effective way to prevent femicide. Several proposals can help reduce the instances of femicide if adopted. One of the proposed ways is to reduce gun ownership or strengthen gun ownership laws (WHO, n.d). This is because ownership of handguns has been associated with perpetuating a significant number of intimate femicide cases. The World Health Organization states that women are more likely to be murdered by their lovers if there is a gun in their home. The second proposal is to strengthen the collection of more data concerning femicide (WHO, n.d). This would help create awareness of the social factors under which femicide takes place. Thirdly, health care workers should be trained to identify intimate partner violence (WHO, n.d). This would also help create proper documentation of femicides and record the issues surrounding them.

The fourth recommendation to reduce femicide is to train and sensitize police and other criminal justice system members to identify and document cases of femicide (WHO, n.d). The police should also be trained to identify children affected by partner violence and femicide. Lastly, there is the urgency to ban the honor killings laws and instead impose punishments for all those found guilty of femicide offences (WHO, n.d). It would also be helpful to introduce honor killings education in regions where it is highly prevalent. violence against women

Justification of Topic-benefits of the research and its contribution to society

Reducing the rate of femicide would be necessary for several reasons. Firstly, it would help boost the efforts to support fundamental human rights (WHO, n.d). In other words, it would allow women to enjoy their fundamental rights such as the right to life, right to liberty, and freedom of expression. It is estimated that about 1.9 million women are physically assaulted each year in the United States, and thus there is a need to prioritize strategies to reduce femicide (WHO, n.d). Secondly, efforts to reduce the rate of femicide would reduce the number of deaths and diseases associated with intimate violence (WHO, n.d). Additionally, violence against women is said to interfere with their lives, work, home, and school. Also, children who have witnessed violence are more at risk of developing physical and mental illnesses.

Thirdly, reducing the rate of femicide would also be a long stride towards accelerating economic development (Bloom, Kuhn, & Prettner, 2020). This is because evidence exists showing that money in the hands of a mother increases expenditure more than when it is in the hands of a father. Additionally, it is agreed as a sound doctrine that women play a critical role in vital economic contributions as they work in the food production industry, entrepreneurship, and resources management. The empowerment of women would also enable them to enter the workforce as many women’s potential remain underutilized.

Research Background

Some various theories and models relate to femicide, including the feminist theory and sociological concept. The feminist approach supports patriarchy or that it prefers a male-dominated society. In other words, the feminist approach is in support of the oppression of women by males. The theory’s central tenet is that power is distributed unequally, with men using their more significant share of it coupled with violence to keep women under their control (Corradi et al., 2016). The unequal distribution of power between men and women is behind the unequal distribution of employment and paid labor costs. The sociological approach to femicide argues that different perpetrators and different social circumstances murder men and women (Marcuello-Servós et al., 2016). This is partly because their intimate partners kill many women, while non-intimate persons kill men. violence against women

Scope of research and its limitations

This research will focus on research studies that address the issue of femicide in various countries across the world. It will also provide an in-depth discussion of the various factors that increase the likelihood of experiencing femicides. Additionally, it will cover the various types of femicide such as intimate femicide, non-intimate femicide, dowry-related femicide, and honor-related murders. Moreover, the research paper will discuss the different techniques that can be used to reduce the cases of femicide. Also, it will discuss theories and approaches to femicide, including feminist theory and sociological concepts. One of the limitations of this study is that there is little research on femicide. Secondly, little is known about the factors that cause femicide because most of them go unreported.

Preliminary literature review

This research study focuses at the high rate of killing of women due to gender-based violence. The research study explains the various approaches that have been used to understand the issues around femicide. The main words in this research include femicide, gender violence, and harassment. Femicide means violence against women ranging from physical, sexual, and emotional harassment. Gender-based violence refers to the unfair treatment of individuals based on their gender (John et al., 2020). Harassment means engaging in behaviors that abuse, insult, and harm others. The most important models featured in this research study include feminist, criminological, human rights, and sociological approaches to femicide. violence against women