Exploring the data on femicide across Europe

Abstract

In recent years, the notion of femicide has expanded in social, criminological and epidemiological research to grasp the basic differences underpinning the killing of a female, as opposed to a male, victim. While femicide research in Australia and the US has been a consolidated trend in criminology and feminist studies since the 1990s (Stout, 1992; Mouzos, 1999; Campbell et al, 2003; Frye et al, 2005), its development in Europe has been much more recent and represents the outcome, primarily, of top-down social pressure. The combined effect of the recent proceedings of the ‘Femicide across Europe’ COST network (active in 30 European countries from 2013 to 2017), together with awareness-raising by the media in many countries and the Resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 11 February 2014 (United Nations, 2014), inter alia, have acted as catalysts for change, contributing significantly to fostering femicide research in Europe. An extensive analysis of the definition of femicide is presented in Chapter 2 of this book.