Femicides in Europe
News reports from around the continent suggested that the Covid-19 pandemic was not only a time of public health emergency and isolation, but also of rising cases of violence against women and femicides. After 2018, no official data about these phenomena was published at a European level however.
That’s why 16 members of EDJNet, coordinated by the Mediterranean Institute for Investigative Reporting, decided to shed light on the numbers, trends, and facts concerning violence against women in Europe, so as to build an up-to-date map of the issue. We did it by requesting data to the national authorities and by assembling it, trying to fill as many gaps as possible.
Main findings:
- There is a staggering lack of up-to-date data and of data coming with similar characteristics, thus comparable between countries. Data recently published by state actors comes with significant gaps.
- The total number of femicides from 2010 to 2021 in the 20 countries providing data is estimated at 3,232. The figure is a sign of serious underreporting by police authorities however, as Eurostat data recorded 6,593 intentional homicides of women in 2011-21 (not all of them are femicides, but most probably are).
- Greece had the highest increase in femicides during the pandemic, with an increase of 187.5% from 8 victims in 2020 to 23 in 2021. In the last few years, femicides have been rising dramatically in Sweden as well. Sexual, economic and online abuses have also increased in several countries.
- The negligence of law enforcement authorities is also an issue: in Greece, for instance, 2020 data shows that only 71% of the 4,436 perpetrators of domestic violence against women were prosecuted. Of these, 21% were convicted, but only 14% of them actually went to prison.
- The adoption of an EU directive to combat violence against women and domestic violence has been pending since March 2022. The directive proposes to make data collection mandatory across the EU, as the extent of violence is not sufficiently recorded and communicated.
Stories
More than 300 femicides have been recorded in Serbia over the last ten years, according to data published by the Autonomous Women’s Centre (AWC) in Belgrade. Most of the women were killed in their own homes, where they lived alone or with their partner.
December 12, 2024
Last summer, Belgium adopted a pioneering European law on femicide, which aims to make up for lost time in collecting data on gender-based violence. However, feminist associations fear that it will not be enough to effectively curb the problem.
April 30, 2024
The second part of EDJNet's investigation on femicides once again highlights the lack of data that would enable useful comparisons at the European level. The case of France provides a good example of such shortcomings.
April 22, 2024
Despite the clear risk factors, the state is failing to provide the protection to female victims of domestic violence that might prevent femicides. Why? We set out to understand, using statistics on gender-based violence from Romania's justice ministry, the national police inspectorate and their local counterparts.
April 16, 2024
Investigating gender-based violence and femicide, we have found that one third of all murdered women are killed by their partners - among other worrying data. Also, due to an inaccurate way of counting victims of domestic violence, many victims may be uncounted.
April 10, 2024
The number of women being murdered by their partners is not falling across Europe. The problem is real in Czechia, where legislators lack the will to tackle violence against women. A new European Union directive, however, could improve the situation.
March 19, 2024
To name things is to write their history. It also gives them an existence. An interview with historian Christelle Taraud, on the difference between "feminicide" and "fémicide": the history of a word that is born in Brussels in the 1970s, bears witness to the murders of women in 1980s Mexico, and returns with #MeToo.
March 13, 2024
The #MeToo movement and feminist activism around the world have thrown the spotlight back onto one of feminism's historic slogans: "The personal is political". How can we talk about femicide and patriarchy without taking into account the powerful – even structural – relationship between love and violence? Italian essayist Lea Melandri speaks with Francesca Barca.
March 13, 2024
New cross-European investigation with Noteworthy finds Ireland’s response to violence against women hindered by insufficient records.
March 12, 2024
Investigation by Noteworthy and European colleagues shows Ireland ranking among highest number of reported rapes in 2022.
March 12, 2024
A new cross-border data investigation by EDJNet reveals gaps in the registration of femicides in Europe and the ineffective protection of women against crimes of sexual, physical, psychological and economic violence over the last decade.
March 8, 2024
The Croatian government has announced its intention to recognise feminicide as a distinct type of crime. An important novelty - but a much broader social change is needed, warn those fighting for women's rights.
December 11, 2023
Over the past ten years, more than 300 femicides have occurred in Serbia. Many of those who kill women also commit suicide. The remaining families of the murdered persons look for justice in court, but CINS’s investigation reveals that they often do not find it there.
May 23, 2023
Is there anything more that authorities can do to protect women?
March 27, 2023
The story of Eleni, who went through a nightmare at the hands of her self-appointed "partner", highlights the institutional gap in support for victims in Greece. What happens to women in Greece when they seek a way out of the abusive environment in which they are trapped?
March 27, 2023
EUrologus presents a brief summary of the legislative measures taken by the European Union in recent years to combat the issue of femicide.
March 24, 2023
Compared to the rest of Europe, the number of homicides in Italy is low and the number of male victims has decreased sharply over the years. But the same cannot be said of women. Meanwhile, at the European level, the heterogeneity of homicide classifications makes counting femicides difficult.
March 15, 2023
An exclusive data analysis by 19 media outlets reveals another dark side to the pandemic: a marked increase in murders of women, and violence against women, at the hands of domestic partners. The investigation also highlights serious flaws in the way institutions monitor this type of abuse.
March 14, 2023
Between 800 and 1,600 a year, but there is no standard definition or comparable data between countries. A directive proposed a year ago makes it compulsory to collect this information across the European Union.
March 14, 2023
Femicide is the murder of a woman because of their gender. We have reconstructed the incidence of femicide in Italy and Europe, notwithstanding the many difficulties in measuring the phenomenon. In Italy in 2022, women were the victims of 91 percent of homicides committed by family members, partners or former partners.
March 8, 2023
This unprecedented cross-border investigation, conducted with the participation of 18 newsrooms across Europe, attempts to shed light on femicides and rising violence against women at the time of the pandemic, as well as on the staggering shortage of up-to-date data on these phenomena.
February 28, 2023
The data unit
Janine Louloudi (MIIR, coordinator) is a journalist at the Mediterranean Institute for Investigative Reporting, based in Athens. She is also a producer of documentary and news programmes.
EDJNet members which took part in this investigation:
Investigace, Atlatszo, and Noteworthy also contributed to the investigation.
