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In Western Culture, feminist campaigns have acted as a catalyst behind major societal changes regarding women's rights. Throughout history, feminism has encompassed a range of social and political movements aiming to establish and define equality of the sexes in societies where the male point of view is prioritised, and injustices occur towards women, solely because of their gender. This inequality in turn reinforces harmful gender stereotypes, roles and dynamics. Although this advocacy primarily focuses on women's rights, many feminists argue for the inclusion of men's liberation as men are also harmed by the perpetuation of traditional gender roles within themselves, which holds the power to harm women if these roles are broken.

Feminist efforts fight to change such marginalising constraints. However, this fight is far from over – especially in Ciudad Juàrez, a Mexican border city experiencing a femicidal crisis where women are being murdered solely because they are women. This is likely due to toxic machismo and marianismo reinforcing the women's lack of rights to body autonomy and free thought. This chapter analyses and examines the many potential contributing factors to these heinous acts such as drug trafficking, organised crime, the emergence of the maquila industry and sociocultural factors like gender roles, and how these factors result in women being othered and viewed as deviant to their society which is so deeply rooted in traditional Catholicism and the gender roles that often apply to those who practice within the area. This notion of deviance ostracises and demonises women who are simply trying to get by, labelling them as monsters in their own society solely for breaking traditional gender roles.

In a country where judicial institutions are known to be inefficient and where activists have traditionally not engaged in legal mobilization, what explains the emergence of NGO strategic litigation? The author argues that a change in the legal opportunity structure impacts how activists interact with the legal system. Comparing two states in Mexico, the author demonstrates that the introduction of private prosecution rights opened the door for activists to litigate femicide cases. The emergence of strategic litigation has helped improve compliance with international human rights law and has had a demonstration effect on how to use the law to press for accountability.

In the contemporary media landscape, gender violence has achieved great visibility. However, the media still struggle to represent the complexity of violence perpetrated by men against women in its various forms – femicide, domestic violence (DV), intimate partner violence and violence against women. The narratives that represent such violence as an expression of individual deviance or as a crime of passion are still the most widespread both in fictional and factual products. This chapter will look at a case study by applying a multiperspective methodology of femicide and DV in an Italian town. In particular, the exemplary case study presented here was constructed by analysing newspaper articles, social networks and one television broadcast. The first part of the chapter is dedicated to the analysis of literature on femicide, DV and gender violence in relation to studies and research on media coverage, with particular reference to Italian studies. The second part presents the methodology applied in the research. The third part presents the outcomes regarding the analysis of the narrative, highlighting the frames that characterise it. Finally, the fourth part shows the conclusion that can be derived.

The purpose of this paper is to establish a conceptual connection between gender-based violence (GBV) and genocide. Victims of gendercide, such as femicide and transicide, should be eligible for protections assigned to victims of genocide, including the Responsibility to Protect (R2P).

This study examines genocide, gendercide, femicide, transicide and the R2P doctrine to formulate a platform of engagement from which to argue the alignment and congruence of genocide with gendercide. Using a content analysis of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees definition of GBV, and Article II of the Genocide Convention (GC) five “directive” facets are examined, namely, identity, physical violence, psychological violence, oppressive violence and repressive violence.

Expressions of physical violence, psychological violence, oppressive violence and repressive violence reflected similarity, whereas the GCs omit sex and gender as facets of identity group inclusion. The only variation is the encapsulation of identity factors included in the acts of harm.

The elevation of gendercide to the status of genocide would permit us the leverage to make it not only illegal to permit gendercide – internationally or in-country – but make it illegal not to intervene, too.

Deliberate harm based on sex and gender are crimes against people because of their real or perceived group membership, and as such, should be included in genocide theory and prevention.

This study explores a new conceptual basis for addressing gendercidal violence nationally to include sex and gender victim groups typically excluded from formal parameters of inclusion and address due to limitations in Article II. The analysis of genocide alongside GBV may inform scholars and activists in the aim to end gendered violence.

The 1993 UN Declaration on Violence Against Women prepared the grounds for the elimination of violence against women and girls (VAWG) as a key ambition of the UN Sustainable Development Goal 5 with Target 5.2 specifically turning attention towards the elimination of all forms of VAWG in the public and private spheres. In this chapter, we take as given the pressing need to reduce VAWG globally. We also acknowledge that measuring VAW is fraught with difficulties, even where criminal justice system responses exist, and that these difficulties can be magnified in countries which have no domestic laws that criminalise common forms of male VAW, including domestic violence. Thus the realisation of Target 5.2 is faced with specific problems of measurement when what constitutes ‘violence against women’ is contested and when there may be no commonly agreed legal indicators between different jurisdictions to act as a proxy for goal achievement. In light of these challenges, we consider how indicators can be best mobilised to provide useful measurements of progress and success for different communities, and for different types of violence(s) against women in the light of Target 5.2.

This chapter demonstrates how the reception, adaption and development of gender studies in Brazil and subsequent law reform have created a new theoretical field of feminist criminology with a Southern approach. During the 1980s, Brazilian literature discussed gender violence according to three theories: male domination (Chauí), patriarchal domination (Saffioti) and relational violence (Gregori). Gender theories were introduced and developed during the 1990s. Decolonial studies stressed the deeper intersection of gender with race, social class and other vectors of discrimination, which increases the vulnerability of minority women, particularly black and indigenous women. The increase in gender studies supported political feminist advocacy to promote law reform, such as the Maria da Penha Law, the criminalisation of femicide, reforms related to sexual violence and women in prison. Feminist criminology has both criticised law and used it to promote gender equality on society. Judicial practices indicate the conservative resistance of the juridical field to assimilating gender debates and feminist critical theories as a whole.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a social issue that continues to haunt humans globally. Despite the magnitude of research that has been conducted, the Sustainable Developmental Goals target 5.2, and the South African proposed National Strategic Plan on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide, South Africa experiences high incidences of IPV. In heterosexual couples, violence incidences are a concern that requires further research by scholars because cohabiting relationships are an increasing phenomenon within the African context. This study attempts to theorize from an African philosophical stance, focusing particularly on the African psychological perspective. In this chapter, The authors illuminate the nature and forms of violence that manifest in cohabiting relationships. This research explores participants’ experiences of IPV in cohabiting relationships.

This enquiry has been conceptualized using a qualitative constructivism paradigm with in-depth, unstructured one-on-one interviews. Interviews were conducted with 10 participants between the ages of 18 and 24 years recruited from the Thohoyandou Victim Empowerment Programme in Vhembe District in Limpopo Province, South Africa. Thematic analysis was used to generate themes while narrative analysis was used for the participants’ stories. Participants shared their self-reflections on their IPV experiences, deciding to leave their relationships, and threats from their partners when they tried to leave the relationships.

This chapter analyzes spatio-temporal patterns of female homicides in Mexico during the period 1990 to 2018. It analyzes socio-demographic and geographical characteristics of female homicides from which it is possible to apply statistical methods that identify regions with high incidence rates that persist over time. It is also discussed the growing participation of civil society organizations (CSOs) and its role on establishing accountability mechanisms and the developments of public policy programs in light of the poor institutional capacity of the Mexican state to address this problem. The findings here described suggest a demographic and geographic spread of female homicides – that is, the phenomenon of violence against women has reached more significant socio-demographic segments whose incidence covers a greater territorial extension. Furthermore, it is argued that despite the strategies implemented by the federal and local government on addressing the problem, the results are far from being acceptable. As argued, this calls for a nationwide initiative, the involvement of international agencies, and the consolidation of women’s empowerment though participatory mechanisms in all aspects of public life.