Femicide

Femicide is generally defined as males killing females because they are females. Variations on this definition include death through selective neglect or the use of the phrase “intentional killing” or any killing of females including those by other females. Feminists use this term to distinguish between the systematic destruction of women simply because they are women and the more general term, homicide, that is used to describe the murder of any person at another person's hands. By distinguishing between the two, feminists reject the use of gender neutral terms to describe what is normally considered hate crimes against women as a gender. Femicide is the ultimate form of violence against women. Research and discourse on femicide show that as patriarchy becomes institutionalized, femicide is used as a method of maintaining male privilege by controlling women and their sexuality. It is an extreme form of punishment against women who have somehow transgressed against men's expectations regarding a woman's proper role in society.

Femicide is a global problem, although there are some regional differences in what type is most prevalent. Some of the earlier well-known cases of femicide include the 16th- and 17th-century witch hunts in Europe. More recently, there are reports of mass femicides, such as the rape-murders of Croatian women by Serbian men during their civil war or the increasing numbers of rape, mutilation, and murder of young women in Latin American countries. Other types of femicide include dowry deaths in India, honor killings in the Arab world, and crimes of passion in the Western world. Femicide includes female infanticide, intimate femicide (women killed by their intimate partners), racist femicide (when black women are killed by white men), and homophobic femicide. Some of the most common types of femicide are described in this entry.