Risk of Femicide and Quality of Life Assessment of Women Victims of Intimate Partner Violence in Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil.

Background: Violence against women is a public priority issue for epidemiological and public health sciences. Severe consequences of violence affect the quality of life of women victims. The objective of this study was to quantify the impact in the quality of life of the strengthening group in women victims of intimate partner violence who attend a reference violence center in Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil. Method: Quasi-experimental before and after the study was designed. The danger assessment and WHOQOL-BREF scales were applied at admission, after 3 and 6 months. Descriptive and statistical analysis of the variables was carried out to verify the difference between the measurements in the quality of life domains. Results: Seventy-eight victims of intimate partner violence participated in the study. The most prevalent violence was psychological (96.2%), physical (79.5%), and moral (67.7%). Three months after participating in the strengthening group, there was an improvement in the 4 domains of quality of life, significantly in the psychological (p=0.032) and physical (p=0.006) domains. More than half of the participants were classified at the extreme level of risk of femicide (51.3%). The study was stopped early because of the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusion: With the available data collected, the strengthening group proved to be a strategy that positively impacts the quality of life of women victims of intimate partner violence.

The impact of stay-at-home orders on safety and stability for women: A topical review of intimate partner violence and intimate femicide in the United States during the initial phase of COVID-19.

Purpose: We intend to identify the links between COVID-19, intimate partner violence (IPV), and intimate femicide (IF) for women in the United States by answering the following questions: (1) what does the existing literature say about the intersection of COVID-19, IPV, and IF and (2) what are the contributing factors leading to rates of violence against women during COVID-19? Method: This topical review summarizes studies published on IPV and IF during the initial stages of COVID-19 covering the period of March 1, 2020, to July 31, 2021. This review identified 22 articles addressing rates of IPV and IF during COVID-19, exacerbating risk factors for women, and recommendations for responses and intervention efforts. Results: Findings revealed an increase in help-seeking calls during the initial phase of the pandemic and COVID-related circumstances such as extended confinement, unemployment, school closures, social isolation, and financial strains intensifying women's experiences of violence. Data also revealed an increase in purchasing firearms, which increases the risk of women being killed by an intimate partner (Lyons et al., 2020). The nexus of COVID-19 and IPV disproportionately impact women, specifically, Latina immigrants. Implications for utilizing an intersectional framework to further examine these issues and promote social and political change are provided. Conclusion: Since the rates of IPV and femicide have been reported as increasing during COVID-19, understanding the complexities and stressors associated with life in a pandemic is essential for addressing inequalities women face and the health of our communities.

Emerging trends in domestic homicide/femicide in Greece over the period 2010-2021.

Temporal trends in epidemiological parameters of domestic homicide and femicide in Greece over the last decade have not yet been studied. We conducted this study to fulfill this purpose. Specifically, we conducted a retrospective epidemiological study using 11-year data from the official nationwide Hellenic Police Archives and statistically analyzed data regarding domestic homicide and femicide. Overall, 1370 records of homicides among which 236 domestic homicides were identified. The pattern emerging from the statistical results of the present study highlighted the phenomenon of femicide as the gravest current issue to be interpreted and addressed. Nationally, the average number of homicides was 114.2/year, among which 19.7 domestic homicides. However, in 2021, while a decrease was recorded in homicides in general to 89 incidents per year, domestic homicides skyrocketed to 34 cases, reaching the highest annual number ever nationally recorded. On average, domestic homicides account for 18.2% of all homicides in Greece. In 2021, however, this percentage rose to 38.2%. The number of male victims of domestic homicide has declined over the years, with a further decline in 2021, in stark contrast to the number of women escalating over time and even more sharply in 2021. The proportion of female victims of domestic homicides in Greece was fourfold higher on average. The fact that cases of domestic homicide and femicide have received a lot of media attention, the recent Greek financial crisis, as well as increased alcohol and drug consumption due to the COVID-19 pandemic constitute possible aggravating factors.

Cause of death: femicide

Labelled ‘the shadow pandemic' by UN Women, violence against women received considerable global public attention during 2020–21. Underpinning this moment of public concern, there lies a substantial history of efforts to document the nature of, and campaign against, the extent of violence against women globally. This is also the case in relation to femicide. Whilst we recognise that this is a contested term, for the purposes of this paper we use femicide to refer to the killing of women and girls because they are female by male violence. Femicide, as a death to be specifically counted in law only exists in a small number of jurisdictions. Where it is so recognised, primarily in South American countries as feminicidio, such deaths represent only the tip of the iceberg of such killings globally. This paper, in drawing on empirical data from a range of different sources (including administrative data, media analysis, and Femicide Observatory data) gathered throughout 2020, considers: what it means to call a death femicide, what implications might follow if all the deaths of women at the hands of men were counted as femicide, and the extent to which extraordinary times have any bearing on this kind of ordinary death. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Cause of death: femicide

Labelled ‘the shadow pandemic' by UN Women, violence against women received considerable global public attention during 2020–21. Underpinning this moment of public concern, there lies a substantial history of efforts to document the nature of, and campaign against, the extent of violence against women globally. This is also the case in relation to femicide. Whilst we recognise that this is a contested term, for the purposes of this paper we use femicide to refer to the killing of women and girls because they are female by male violence. Femicide, as a death to be specifically counted in law only exists in a small number of jurisdictions. Where it is so recognised, primarily in South American countries as feminicidio, such deaths represent only the tip of the iceberg of such killings globally. This paper, in drawing on empirical data from a range of different sources (including administrative data, media analysis, and Femicide Observatory data) gathered throughout 2020, considers: what it means to call a death femicide, what implications might follow if all the deaths of women at the hands of men were counted as femicide, and the extent to which extraordinary times have any bearing on this kind of ordinary death. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

The said and the not said in the nature of crime

Objective: To identify the microstructures used in the incident reports generated after the deaths of women to name the criminal practices, thus identifying possible improbability, prejudices and antipathies. Methods: Conceptual organization by categories and discourse analysis were used with the assumption that naming to apprehend is different from naming to punish. To do so, using the following clippings: geographic (São Paulo-Brazil), temporal (January-December 2020) chosen due to the socio-environmental conditions imposed by the advance of SARS-CoV-2 in 2020, which boosted the significant increase in the cases of femicide in Brazil, a documental reading was carried out in the 167 bulletins of occurrences provided by the State Department of Public Security Results: It is possible to observe the use of different terms for crimes committed against women, even if their characteristics point to the crime of femicide. Of the 167 documents analyzed, two did not have femicide as an outcome of the crime. In one, victim and perpetrator did not have any type of relationship, being classified as simple homicide. Simple homicide is the act of intentionally killing another person, with the intention of committing the crime;crimes without qualifiers can increase privileges or decrease punishment. The other document had the unfolding field blank, not bringing any information. Conclusions: Naming to apprehend is different from naming to punish. The credible naming avoids recurrent under-notifications and deletions that harm the search and access to information. Knowing this, we believe in the need to name femicide, representing it accurately. © 2022, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. All rights reserved.

An Assessment of Government Commitment to the Promotion and Protection of Women’s Rights in South Africa

African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) report on South Africa indicates a steady improvement in the different areas. This improvement is also apparent in the promotion of the rights of women. The country has enacted several legislations to uphold women’s equality and protection. It has used different instruments to implement these legislations with different degrees of success. This chapter looks at the progress made on the APRM 2021 report compared to the previous report on the development of women’s representation in government and economy, poverty alleviation and access to dignified living, and gender-based violence. The chapter delves into the developments made to address gender-based violence, since there was a significant uptick during the Covid-19 pandemic. Government reports, Stats SÁ, and other publications were used to source data for the chapter. The conclusion is that despite the significant progress that has been made in this area, women need to be represented more in the higher position of the economy, still lack access to services, and encounter biased accessing opportunities, and face unacceptably high levels of gender-based violence and femicide. A concerted effort is required to address these issues in government, the private sector, and society. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

When COVID-19 Is Not All: Femicide Conducted by a Murderer with a Narcissistic Personality "Masked" by a Brief Psychotic Disorder, with a Mini-Review.

Several cases of COVID-19-related mental disorders have emerged during the pandemic. In a case of femicide that occurred in Italy during the first phase of the pandemic, coinciding with a national lockdown, a discrepancy arose among forensic psychiatry experts, particularly toward the diagnosis of Brief Psychotic Disorder (BPD) related to COVID-19. We aimed to discuss the evaluation of the case through an integration of information and a literature review on comparable reported cases. An analysis of the diagnosis of brief acute psychosis was then performed, as well as a mini-review on cases of COVID-19-related psychosis. Results showed that psychotic symptomatology was characterized by polythematic delusions that always involved a SARS-CoV-2 infection. To a lesser extent, the delusions were accompanied by hallucinations, bizarre cognitive and associative alterations, insomnia, hyporexia, dysphoria, and suicidal behavior. No particularly violent acts with related injury or death of the victim were described. Finally, we could hypothesize that our case was better represented by a diagnosis of personality with predominantly narcissistic and partly psychopathic traits. The present case highlighted the importance, in the context of forensic psychiatry, of integrating assessments with the crime perpetrators, namely through accurate clinical interviews, neuropsychological tests, diachronic observations, and comparison with similar cases present in the literature. Such an integrated approach allows precise evaluation and reduces the odds of errors in a field, such as forensic psychiatry, where a diagnostic decision can be decisive in the judgment of criminal responsibility. Moreover, discerning forensics from health cases represents an important issue in risk management.

Gender-Based Violence (GBV), Femicide, and Transfemicide: Categories of Sociological Analysis Needed for the Materialization of Justice With a Gender Perspective After the COVID-19 Pandemic

In the context of the global pandemic of COVID-19 and the quarantine decreed on March 24, 2020, in the Colombian territory as a reaction and way to suppress the health emergency, a second national alert arises: femicides. The magnitude of the femicides perpetuated and the fact that just one day after the presidential declaration of mandatory quarantine a triple femicide was committed in the city of Cartagena show that violence against women is another growing and socially rooted deadly emergency. Therefore, the research from which this text is derived seeks to incorporate a sociological analysis of femicides and transfemicides into the legal exercise, to understand the institutional difficulties, the gap between protection measures, and the complexity of patriarchal violence. This aims to strengthen institutional tools that materialize the framework of the rights of women and diverse people, based on the characterization and understanding of the conditions that surround the phenomenon of femicide as the maximum expression of patriarchal violence, observing doctrinal and normative studies, as well as jurisprudential references. Therefore, it is intended to contribute to the discussion by observing how institutions conceive and confront the phenomenon of femicide, to impact the protection mechanisms and the effectiveness of the administration of justice and to adequately face the current national alert for femicides. © 2022, Universidad Santo Tomas. All rights reserved.

Femicide and Attempted Femicide before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Chile.

Experts and international organizations hypothesize that the number of cases of fatal intimate partner violence against women increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, primarily due to social distancing strategies and the implementation of lockdowns to reduce the spread of the virus. We described cases of attempted femicide and femicide in Chile before (January 2014 to February 2020) and during (March 2020 to June 2021) the pandemic. The attempted-femicide rate increased during the pandemic (incidence rate ratio: 1.22 [95% confidence interval: 1.04 to 1.43], p value: 0.016), while the rate of femicide cases remained unchanged. When a comparison between attempted-femicide and femicide cases was performed, being a foreigner, having an intimate partner relationship with a perpetrator aged 40 years or more, and the use of firearms during the assault were identified as factors associated independently with a higher probability of being a fatal victim in Chile. In conclusion, this study emphasizes that attempted femicide and femicide continued to occur frequently in family contexts both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Locked in Abuse: Intimate Partner Violence against Women during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The whole world has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic that has held the health and livelihoods of people in its grip since 2020. In their initial response to the pandemic, governments throughout the world implemented social distancing restrictions, also referred to as lockdown, that required people to remain at home to prevent the spread of the virus. Intimate partner violence is a persistent challenge in South Africa and the COVID-19 crisis and lockdown measures have caused great concerns about their impact on women and domestic issues, especially those who reside with violent partners. This paper attempts to explore the impact of intimate partner violence on women during the COVID-19 lockdown period in South Africa. A qualitative method was used to collect data from previous studies, news reports, and two social media platforms. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, data from 2020 and 2021 data were collected from Facebook and Twitter. Keywords such as “gender-based violence”, “GBV during lockdown”, “intimate partner violence”, “abused women”, and hashtags with the words “stopkillingwomen”, “menaretrash”, “justiceforwomen”, and “GBV” were used to find information. To augment the findings of the study, data were also collected from reports by the government of South Africa that were issued since the beginning of lockdown in March 2020 as well as peer-reviewed scholarly articles. The findings showed that most victims of gender-based violence (GBV) lived with abusive partners during the lockdown. The Minister of Police supported the findings during a media briefing, mentioning that the number of gender-based violence complaints continued to remain high during lockdown. People on social media posted emotional messages about this topic and generally shared their anger that victims of GBV do not get justice as the perpetrators do not get sentenced. The study recommends that GBV in South Africa should be addressed more practically. Moreso, laws should be more rigorously enforced to bring perpetrators to book and to protect any potential female victims from any form of abuse, especially GBV.

Framing Feminicides—A Quantitative Content Analysis of News Stories in Four Colombian Newspapers

Colombia is marked by high levels of gender-based violence. In 2020, 630 women were murdered because of their gender. The number of these feminicides increased under the coronavirus lockdown that began in March 2020. Although the news media play a crucial role in shaping the public’s notion of feminicides, empirical studies on the media’s portrayal of feminicides in Colombia are scarce. The present study involved a quantitative content analysis of articles published in four Colombian newspapers to determine how they reported on feminicides from August 2019 to July 2020 (sample size: 139 articles, comprising 1798 paragraphs). The period under investigation allowed for a comparison of news coverage before and during the lockdown. By means of hierarchical cluster analysis, we identified four frames: “gender-based inequalities and discrimination against women”, “perpetrators in front of the court”, “prehistory and course of events of the feminicide”, and “reactions of neighbors, eyewitnesses, and villagers to the feminicide”. Our findings suggest that the four newspapers under investigation paint rather similar pictures of feminicides. We also found that the date an article was published in relation to the COVID-19 quarantine had little influence on the frequency at which the clusters appeared.

REPREZENTAREA FEMICIDULUI CONJUGAL ÎN MEDIA ÎN PERIOADA PANDEMIEI DE COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has represented a high impact situation for the nations around the world. The measures imposed by the Governements, the unavoidable changes and particularly the lockdowns had and still have many repercussions for all the people. In this context, the most affected groups have been children, elderly people and women. Even if before the pandemic has started, the violence against women was considered a significant matter that needs more attention from the part of the national and international entities, during the health crisis, each country underlined that the number of domestic violence cases increased and also the number of femicides. This paper will provide a large perspective regarding the manner in which Romanian journalists depicted the domestic femicides during March 2020-May 2021, using the discourse analysis and the thematic content analysis. The main objective of this study is to identify specific patterns, recurrent themes and actors that appear when a journalist presents a domestic femicide. The conclusions will focus on the differences and similarities between the articles selected for this research in order to create a clearer image of a phenomenon that constantly increases: the femicide. © 2021 Ovidius University. All rights reserved.

Twenty years of femicide in Milan: A retrospective medicolegal analysis.

Femicide constitutes a leading cause of premature deaths for women, yet it has been the subject of limited research until recently. Enhanced data collection and analysis on killings of women and girls are necessary to understand and address this unrelenting phenomenon. This study examines all cases of female homicide encountered at the Institute of Legal Medicine of Milan (Italy) spanning from 1999 to 2019; data from 2020/2021 were shown separately given the bias that the forced cohabitation and stay at home during the lockdowns of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic may represent regarding violence against women and femicide. In this study, specific factors were considered, including the age and nationality of the victims, the place of recovery of the bodies, the victim's relationship to the perpetrator and the injuries they suffered. As a result, 200 female killings were found among the over 15,000 autopsies and 535 homicides investigated at the Institute of Legal Medicine of Milan from 1999 to 2019, representing an average of 9.5 femicides yearly. The majority of victims were Italian (74%) and half were aged between 18 and 49 years old. The killings were overwhelmingly committed in the domestic setting (78.5%) by male perpetrators (at least 85%), related to the victims as intimate or ex-intimate partners and members of the family (73.5%). The homicides were mainly perpetrated with sharp (32%) or blunt instruments (21.5%), shooting (18.5%) and asphyxiation (16.5%). This study is part of a growing effort to enhance data collection and analysis on femicide. Studying and monitoring the rates of femicide (or "femicide watch") will permit to better understand, reduce, and finally end femicide globally.

Pattern of rape and femicide during COVID-19 lockdown: content and discourse analysis of digital media reports in Nigeria

Rape and associated femicide have stood out as the most typical forms of violence in Nigeria. There appears to be a paucity of information on the pattern of rape in Nigeria, particularly in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic. We explored the pattern of rape and femicide incidences in Nigeria during and after the COVID-19 lockdown. A convergent mixed methods design, involving quantitative content analysis and critical discourse analysis was used to establish the pattern in rape and femicide incidences as reported in diverse digital media platforms. A total of 48 rape cases were investigated, of which 12.5% resulted in femicide. More than half (55.6%) of the rape victims were aged 11 to 20 and were predominantly female (97%). A large percentage (42.9%) of the rape perpetrators were between 31 and 45 years of age and were all male. The incidence of rape increased steadily from 5.1% in March to peak at 33.3% in June and declined sharply by the end of August 2020 to 5.1% with rape being more prevalent in Northern Nigeria. There is a need for urgent measures by relevant stakeholders to curtail rape in Nigeria.

The many shades of violence against women: a call to action

Confronting gender-based violence is a key area of concern and one that calls for urgent action. These debates have become particularly relevant in light of the Covid-19 pandemic and the unveiling of underlying inequalities. Amongst the many unintended consequences of the pandemic lies the increased risk of domestic violence for vulnerable women who have been required to self-isolate. There is increasing evidence that we are facing more than one pandemic with quite worrying and widespread problems in global systems, whether they relate to public health or to human rights. As academics, we can contribute by theorizing with intersectionalities, translating research into practice, engaging with our local communities and creating non-stigmatized environment. But most of all, we can advocate for victims.

Better Prevention of Femicide: Evidence from Brazil

This article presents the results of a death review study of 34 cases of femicide in the Federal District, Brazil, between 2016 and 2017. The aim of the study is to analyse how primary, secondary and tertiary prevention policies could have enhanced the prevention of these particular femicides. The study uses a mixed-method research design to analyse the judicial and health files of victims and perpetrators, supplemented by semi-structured interviews with surviving relatives. The findings highlight the need for an intersectional approach to gender, race, class and migration status in prevention policies;better risk assessment and management;enhanced women's reporting of domestic violence earlier;and better integration of the justice system with psychosocial services. The increase of violence against women during the COVID-19 pandemic strengthens the need for an integrated approach to the prevention of lethal gender violence. This paper provides an original contribution to better comprehend the profile of femicide victims and perpetrators with a view on how to improve prevention policies in Brazil.

Against All Odds, Femicide Did Not Increase During the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence From Six Spanish-Speaking Countries.

This paper tests a situational hypothesis which postulates that the number of femicides should increase as an unintended consequence of the COVID-19-related lockdowns. The monthly data on femicides from 2017 to 2020 collected in six Spanish-speaking countries-Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Panama, Mexico, and Spain-and analyzed using threshold models indicate that the hypothesis must be rejected. The total number of femicides in 2020 was similar to that recorded during each of the three previous years, and femicides did not peak during the months of the strictest lockdowns. In fact, their monthly distribution in 2020 did not differ from the seasonal distribution of femicides in any former year. The discussion criticizes the current state of research on femicide and its inability to inspire effective criminal polices. It also proposes three lines of intervention. The latter are based on a holistic approach that places femicide in the context of crimes against persons, incorporates biology and neuroscience approaches, and expands the current cultural explanations of femicide.

Intimate Partner Violence against Women during the COVID-19 Lockdown in Spain.

AIMS: To analyze the temporal and geographical distribution of different indicators for the evolution of intimate partner violence against women (IPV) before, during and after the COVID-19 induced lockdown between March and June 2020 in Spain. METHODS: Descriptive ecological study based on numbers of 016-calls, policy reports, women killed, and protection orders (PO) issued due to IPV across Spain as a whole and by province (2015-2020). We calculated quarterly rates for each indicator. A cluster analysis was performed using 016-call rates and protection orders by province in the second quarters of 2019 and 2020. ANOVAs were calculated for clustering by province, unemployment rates by province, and the current IPV prevalence. RESULTS: During the second quarter of 2020, the highest 016-call rate was recorded (12.19 per 10,000 women aged 15 or over). Policy report rates (16.62), POs (2.81), and fatalities (0.19 per 1,000,000 women aged 15 or over) decreased in the second quarter of 2020. In the third quarter, 016-calls decreased, and policy reports and POs increased. Four clusters were identified, and significant differences in unemployment rates between clusters were observed (F = 3.05, p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The COVID-19 lockdown fostered a change in IPV-affected women's help-seeking behavior. Differences between the volume of contacts made via 016-call and the policy reports generated provide evidence for the existence of barriers to IPV-service access during the lockdown and the period of remote working. More efforts are needed to reorganize services to cope with IPV in non-presential situations. The provinces with the highest 016-call and PO rates were also those with the highest rates of unemployment, a worrying result given the current socioeconomic crisis.