Column | Femicide: nowhere is it more dangerous than at home

Takes femicide, killing women because of their gender, more or less? Or is just knowledge about it increasing, as well as social unrest? Based on it NRCarticle, with 25 surviving relatives, I lean towards the latter. The attention to the murder of women by their ex-partners is the ultimate #MeToo. Men, of the compulsive controlling type, also appear to kill their partners, usually after the breakup. In criminology this in itself is not surprising – prisons are already mainly filled with men. They have a disproportionate share in all crime. So also in murder.

The term femicide does something different and aims for something different. It expresses social outrage about inequality, oppression, domestic violence and one-sided victimhood. It is a political signaling concept, intended to strengthen the position of one specific type of victim. For the record: that’s very good. Recently, the alarm bell was sounded during a hearing in the House of Representatives about this form of extreme domestic violence. Like a high impact crime, a form of ‘intimate terror’ because of being a woman. Femicide is political, with a framework based on gender sociology rather than criminology or law. At least, I have not yet heard that femicide should be punished more severely.

If I limit myself to criminology and law, nuance becomes apparent. As far as I can see, the statistics show that murder of women is decreasing at the same rate as murder of men. The number of murdered women fell from 70 in 2000 to 44 in 2021. The total, including men, from 223 to 121. In 2003, a total of 190 suspects were summoned, last year 100. This obviously does not put into perspective the disproportionate share of women in intimate partner homicide. nor the personal dramas. But it is undeniable that the total number is falling sharply. It shows that, despite images and one-sided media attention, society is becoming substantially safer. Also for women.

This trend was recently confirmed by the annual major figures overview of the Ministry of Justice, Crime and Law Enforcement 2022. Registered crime fell by 30 percent in eleven years. Violence, property crimes and vandalism fell by 40 percent. In 2012, 8.3 million crimes were registered, last year 4.9 million.

Criminologically, there is something to be said about the ‘umbrella concept’ of femicide. It is “too broad and indefinite,” wrote criminologist Marieke Liem, professor of violence and interventions, recently. In the context of long-term research into murder, she established that, in addition to being murdered in relationships, women are also murdered in nightlife, during robberies, robberies, during sex and by other family members, including their own parents. ‘Pure’ partner killing applies to 52 percent of the cases. The motives of perpetrators form a “heterogeneous palette”. The term femicide, imported from Latin America, “applying it indiscriminately” does not do justice to reality, she believes. Femicide should be limited to long-term abuse of women by their male (ex-) partners, ending in partner killing.

Something similar applies to the murder of men, according to Liem, possibly if viricide to point out. Motives and perpetrators of murder and manslaughter of men are even more diverse. CBS figures for 2016-2020 show that in 80 percent of cases something is known about the perpetrator. Killing by the closest partner is then a low risk: 4 percent (56 percent for women). But men’s own environment is also a high risk. Parents and ‘other family’ together make up 10 percent of the perpetrators, acquaintances and ‘friends’ 30 percent. In total, 44 percent of suspects of murdering men come from their own family or relationship circle. So nowhere is it more dangerous than at home. ‘Criminals among themselves’ amounts to 15 percent.

According to Liem, the key question with femicide is what exactly needs to be prevented. Structural violence against women “in the broadest sense of the word? Deadly violence against women in the context of human trafficking and prostitution? Fatal abuse of own (step)daughters? Or structural domestic violence, stalking or threats in which there is a high risk of a fatal outcome?” The more specific the description the better, she believes. According to her, it should be better spoken of prostitution killing, child killing or partner killing. Violence against women is therefore more complicated than the black-and-white scheme of ‘femicide’ suggests. Just like ‘viricide’.

Folkert Jensma is a legal editor and writes every other week on Mondays.

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