Femicide

On November 26, 2012, the Vienna Declaration on Femicide was signed by participants at a one-day symposium convened by the Academic Council on United Nations System (ACUNS). This symbolic event comes more than forty years after Diana Russell first used the term testifying at the International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women. Since the mid-1970s, there has been periodic and important research on femicide; however, since mid-2000, there has been an obvious increase in grassroots, academic, and government attention. In part, this is due to efforts of those concerned about high femicide rates in some countries, leading to legislative efforts and initiatives to better respond to femicide. This has also led to use of the term “feminicide” (or feminicidio) by some to highlight the impunity with which these crimes are often treated in some parts of the world (e.g., Latin America) or when perpetrated against some groups of women (e.g., Indigenous women, poor women, sex-trade workers). Increasing attention to femicide has led to discussions about how to define and classify femicide; what we currently know about its prevalence and characteristics of those involved; how to document it more accurately; how countries can better prevent femicide, particularly for some groups; what punishments are appropriate; and whether and how states are contributing to the problem with inadequate responses. The research highlighted in this bibliography adheres to Russell’s definition of femicide as “the killing of one or more females by one or more males because they are female,” or killings motivated by hatred and unequal power relations between men and women. It also includes research encompassing the more recent concept of feminicide which captures the complicity of the state or governments in contributing to these killings. Therefore, this bibliography includes only articles, books, and other publications that use the terms “femicide” or “feminicide” explicitly in the title or abstract. While this decision excludes important work that arguably captures killings of women by men because they are women, it underscores the importance of using terms that directly name the phenomenon rather than using more gender-neutral terms (e.g., intimate partner, domestic or family homicide). Given the burgeoning literature in the recent decade on these latter phenomena, it also provides parameters that made article selection more focused and manageable. While numerous countries are represented below, some world regions are more active in researching and addressing femicide/feminicide. Many disciplines are seeking to better understand, document, and respond to these killings as shown by the Journals in which research has been published, ranging from the expected—sociology, law, criminology—to the less expected, such as gynaecology and obstetrics, and pediatrics, underscoring the multidisciplinary foci required to adequately understand femicide. Regardless of world region or discipline, the research below represents key works and recent and innovative approaches to the study of femicide/feminicide. The field is rapidly expanding, however, with new publications appearing frequently. This bibliography provides a sample of what is available.