Federal government websites often end in. The site is secure. Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October Learn More or Try it out now. Little is known about the prevalence and dynamics of femicide, a persistent form of violence against women and girls, due to challenges associated with its documentation.
Research by Abrahams and colleagues comparing rates of femicide in South Africa over 18 years, however, suggests that femicide is preventable. In this Perspective, Chen Reis and Sarah Meyer discuss the incidence and dynamics of femicide globally and highlight the urgent need for better data and documentation to enact policies aimed at prevention, early detection, and timely intervention in cases of femicide.
Femicideβthe intentional killing of women and girls because of their gender [ 1 ]βis an extreme manifestation of violence against women and girls rooted in misogyny and harmful beliefs and norms. This form of violence, and insufficient responses to it, constitute an undervaluation of the lives of women and girls. Femicide is a public health and human rights issue that is underdocumented, underresearched, and poorly understood especially in lower- and middle-income country settings.
In an accompanying research study in PLOS Medicine , Abrahams and colleagues report estimates for the prevalence of femicide in , , and , to track femicide rates in South Africa over this year period, finding a reduction in femicide overall and different patterns of change in femicide by category of perpetrator. Femicide is generally recognized to have 2 subcategories: intimate partner femicide IPF committed by former or current intimate partners, which accounts for most cases of femicide, and nonintimate partner femicide NIPF.
Although data are limited, it is estimated that, globally, 89, women were killed intentionally in , of which 48, were killed by an intimate partner or a family member [ 3 ]. Abrahams and colleagues conducted 3 dedicated retrospective survey studies of femicide which they defined as the intentional killing of women and girls over 18 years in South Africa using mortuary records [ 4 ].
