FEMICIDE IN ITALY: COLLECTING DATA IN A GENDER

PERSPECTIVEResearch proposal presented to the Conference

"Districare il nodo Genere-Potere: Sguardi interdisciplinari su politica, lavoro, sessualità e cultura"

February 2014, 21-22Interdisciplinary Research Centre on Gender issues (CSG)

University of Trento

PREMISES1. "Figures alone cannot sufficiently advance a

gender-based analysis"quoting Marie-Dominique de Suremain, Jean-Pierre Darlot, Marie-Christine Elgard, Yves Gerday, Claude Mugnier, Mathilde Sengoelge and Marcel Spector, authors of a EU-27 comparative analysis on the estimation of "Intimate Partner Violence related mortality in Europe"(2010) granted by the EU Programme Daphne III 2007-2013 for the prevention of violence towards children, adolescents and women

2. Small numbers but major implications of this phenomenon

(as for alcoholism, paedophilia, etc.) both short and long run implications, both at the household and at the society level, either in economic, legal,

mental, psychological, etc. terms

3. Generous literature in the field but lack of studies which explore the phenomenon in a quantitative perspective4. Scholars also make a clear distinction between the words "femicide" versus "feminicide"

RATE OF HOMICIDES IN ITALY: A CONTROVERSIAL ISSUE.

i. VICTIM-PERPETRATOR RELATIONSHIP retrived from: Rapporto sulla Criminalità in Italia. Analisi, Prevenzione, Contrasto (2006)

"In recent years, the percentage of male perpetrators towards victims of the same sex has fallen (...)."

What has increased, in relative terms, are episodes of murders where the victim was female and the author was a man (...).

Rapporto sulla Criminalità in Italia. Analisi, Prevenzione, Contrasto (2006). Pagg.127-8

RATE OF HOMICIDES IN ITALY: A CONTROVERSIAL ISSUE.

II. YEARS 2000-2012 : 27,8% TOTAL HOMICIDES INVOLVES FEMALE VICTIMS (150-200 peOPLE)- Eures

"Gendered homicide": the trend is constant

Verkko's Law

Gendered-approach

"Intimate partner/family-related homicide is the major cause of female homicides."Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences: Mission to Italy - United Nations (2012)

The trend is stable: it still has to be tackled

The trend is stable: there is a "physiological" level that cannot be lowered

GENDER PERSPECTIVE: CONTEXTUALIZING FEMICIDE

"Such killings are not isolated incidents that arise suddenly and unexpectedly, but represent the ultimate act of violence which is experienced in a continuum of violence.

Women subjected to continuous violence and living under conditions of gender-based discrimination and threat are always on ―death row, always in fear of execution.

This results in the inability to live, and is a major part of the death process when the lethal act finally occurs."

- Rashida Manjoo, UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women -

HOMICIDE IN ITALY: TYPOLOGY(ABSOLUTE FIGURES, YEARS1992-2006)

CURRENT DATA COLLECTION:

EXAMPLES

Femicide following sexual violence or prostitution are currently gathered to those for "other reasons" (as drugs, serial homicides, etc) rather then to femicides as homicides of women "because of their sex".

We know the weapon used in familiar homicides but not the one used most commonly in domestic femicides

INTERNATIONAL COMMENTS ON THE ITALIAN CONTEXT

Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences:

Mission to Italy (2012)

"(...) The high levels of domestic violence, which are contributing to rising levels of femicide, demand serious

attention.""(...) previous achievements have not led to a decrease

in the femicide rate"The Special Rapporteur notes limitations in efforts of Government institutions to collect disaggregated data and statistics related to violence against women, including femicides.

MAJOR PROBLEMS LACK OF JURIDICAL DEFINITION, LACK OF HOMOGENEOUS CRITERIA FOR ITS DEFINITION ACROSS COUNTRIES AND LACK OF COMPARATIVE DATA Def. of "femicide" as: - gender homicide? - homicide of women because of her sex (i.e. prostitute? lesbian? etc.? passional motives? etc.)? Def. ONU: "The killings can be active or direct, with defined perpetrators, but they can also be passive or indirect. The direct category includes: killings as a result of intimate-partner violence; sorcery/witchcraft-related killings; honour-related killings; armed conflict-related killings; dowry-related killings; gender identity- and sexual orientation-related killings; and ethnic- and indigenous identity-related killings. The indirect category includes: deaths due to poorly conducted or clandestine abortions; maternal mortality; deaths from harmful practices; deaths linked to human trafficking, drug dealing, organized crime and gang-related activities.

Estimation of intimate-partner violence related mortality in Europe (2010)

IT IS DIFFICULT TO IDENTIFY THE PERSISTENT CONTROL CERTAIN MEN HAVE OVER "THEIR" PARTNER where the perpetrator was a person dating (without having necessarily an intimate relationship)

(e.g. homicides disguised as accidents, fatal pathologies due to the stress of IPV, disappearances)

EU Programme Daphne III 2007-2013 for the prevention of violence towards children, adolescents and women

CROSS-COUNTRY COMPARISON INDEX

"It seemed necessary to illustrate the interpretation of published figures with real case studies within a sociological approach, since numbers alone cannot sufficiently advance a gender-based analysis.

Priority on the observed and published national data judged reliable, whenever they exist. The available data vary in accordance with the evolution of legislative changes, and the social and scientific contemplation taking place in each of the Member States. "

Darlot J.P., De Suremain M.D. et al. (2010), Estimation of intimate-partner violence related mortality in Europe - EU Programme Daphne III 2007-2013 for the prevention of violence towards children, adolescents and women

THEIR METHODOLOGY

The methodology utilised has a triple approach, from a gender-based point of view: a macro-data approach: European and international databases

available. The data were medical (Eurostat mortality data on homicides and suicides and those from the World Health Organization) and police data (homicides from Interpol - International Criminal Police Organization and from the United Nations- United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime);

a meso-data approach: we collected the results of studies, estimations and specific reports from all of the 27 Member States (MS) related to IPV mortality, depending on their availability and if the results appeared viable and the methodology clear and explicit;

micro-data approach: homicide cases by keyword search on major newspapers in France, Italy and Austria.

femICIDE RISK and causal effects

DATABASE IN A GENDER PERSPECTIVE (Eures, 2000-2011)

• authors: partner 42%• motive: possession 30%• location : house• interaction at the moment of the

femicide : quarrel• daily time: evening• perpetrator's behaviour after:

suicide 36%• etc.

RISK INDICATORS

Drugs addiction+ quarrels (35%)+weapon "possession"

Economic dependence (18%) + jealousy+ violence (45%), ecc.

Source: EURES INDISPENSABILE APPROCCIO MULTIDISCIPLINARE

DURABLE RISK FACTORS *

- prior domestic violence - male partner unemployment –

firearm ownership -drug and alcohol use- - threat of separation

-sexual jealousy -extreme male dominance etc.

* See, for example: Cao, L., Hou, Ch. and Huang, B., Correlates of the Victim Offender Relationship in Homicide, International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology (2007); Abrahams, N., Jewkes, R. and Mathews, Sh., Guns and gender-based violence in South Africa, South African Medical Journal (2010) and Roberts, D.W., Intimate Partner Homicide: Relationships to Alcohol and Firearms, Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice (2009).

DETECTION

1. Monitoring geografical areas and individual background 2. Data integration (violence assistance, hospitals, police data etc.)

3. Phenomenon : trend evaluation

Prevalence of femicide perpetrated by partners(according to Eures)

DATA ON VIOLENCE

hidden violence rate

estimate: 93%

In 67% cases, third people knew about previous violence

N. ACTUAL FEMICIDE /N. WOMEN AT RISK

Juridical def. Risk indicators

OPEN QUESTIONS

How many violences (announced- not announced) become femicide?...

How many denounced violences transforms to femicide before their arrival at the court?

Institutions responsibilities? : jurisdicial mechanisms which discourage the denunce or are not effective in protecting them by the risk ?