Identifying femicide using the United Nations statistical framework: Exploring the feasibility of sex/gender-related motives and indicators to inform prevention

Abstract

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 55% of women and girls killed in 2022 died at the hands of intimate partners or family members, contexts indicative of femicide. The proportion of the remaining 45% of women and girls killed which involved sex or gender-related elements remains largely unknown. This is due to the lack of high-quality, gender-sensitive data collection tools and the few systematic efforts to more consistently and accurately document femicide. Information about femicide in marginalized and racialized communities is further affected because many of these deaths remain invisible in official data for women and girls who live – and die – at the intersections of race, poverty, ability, sexuality, and other social identities. Drawing from a recently released international statistical framework for measuring gender-related killings of women and girls, this article examines the presence of sex/gender-related motives and indicators in a Canadian sample, drawing data from publicly available information. Findings about the feasibility of documenting sex/gender-related motives and indicators generally and for specific groups of women and girls are discussed.