Femicide and Feminicide in Mexico: Patterns and Trends in Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Regions

Abstract

The killing of women in Mexico has attracted both national and international attention. Many of these homicides are regarded as feminicides, which are defined as the misogynistic killing of women for reasons of gender rooted in ideological and structural gender inequalities. This study examines changes and continuities in female homicides and femicides from 2001 to 2017 in indigenous and non-indigenous municipalities. Female homicides have increased at a higher rate than femicides, but the latter has increased at a higher rate in indigenous municipalities than in non-indigenous municipalities. This is associated with an increase in gender equality in a context of conflict and structural discrimination against indigenous peoples. Implications for future research and public interventions are discussed.

Intimate Partner Violence, Femicide, and General Theories: Issues for Research and Policy From the View of Modern Control Theory

“…Popularized by Radford and Russell (1992) femicide is defined as "the misogynist killing of women by men" (p. 3). Contemporary usage of the term emphasizes that many female victims of homicide are perpetrated by their male partners and point to a general tolerance for gender violence by the state (Frías, 2023).…”

“…Campbell et al, 2007; Chapple & Hope, 2003; R. Felson & Lane, 2012; Finkel et al, 2009; Frías, 2023; H. Johnson et al, 2019; I.…”

Complex gendered agency in Mexico: how women negotiate hierarchies of fear to search for the disappeared

“…4 In Mexico, the violence that women experience is often assessed using narratives that place it on a spectrum of violence against women, which is then framed as private violence (see Wright, 2017). Activists and scholars have pushed for recognitions of this violence as intrinsically connected to public expressions of insecurity, impunity, corruption and neoliberal economic policy (Lagarde, 2006;Staudt, 2008;Monárrez Fragoso, 2015;Staudt and Méndez, 2015;Wright, 2017;Orozco Mendoza, 2019;Frías, 2023). Indeed, Orozco Mendoza's (2019: 213) work on maternal activism recognises that 'when faced with institutions that disavow feminicide, the victims' mothers risked their own lives through bodily exposure and created communities of resistance that challenged dominant constructions of Mexican women as passive and docile'.…”

Problematizing “Security” in Citizen Security: A feminist security studies critique of Mexico's “feminist” foreign policy and women, peace and security projects

“…Perhaps one of the most high‐profile examples of violence carried out by state and nonstate forces with significant impunity in Mexico is femicide, or as it is known in Mexico, “feminicide,” or feminicidio . As defined in the Mexican Federal Criminal Code, “feminicide involves a killing of a woman for gender reasons”; it includes intimate partner violence, the most prevalent form of feminicide in Mexico, and violence committed by other actors known or unknown to the victim (Frías, 2021, p. 7). It does not include violence stemming from “gender discriminatory practices,” such as “preventable” and noncriminalized maternal mortality, malnutrition, and forced sterilization (Frías, 2021, p. 6), nor does it typically include “murders of indigenous women associated with defense of communal properties, conflict among indigenous communities, and violent acts of mass killing due to the militarization of rural areas, and the presence of paramilitary groups” because of the narrow interpretation of what constitutes “gender reasons” (Frías, 2021, p. 7).…”

“…As defined in the Mexican Federal Criminal Code, “feminicide involves a killing of a woman for gender reasons”; it includes intimate partner violence, the most prevalent form of feminicide in Mexico, and violence committed by other actors known or unknown to the victim (Frías, 2021, p. 7). It does not include violence stemming from “gender discriminatory practices,” such as “preventable” and noncriminalized maternal mortality, malnutrition, and forced sterilization (Frías, 2021, p. 6), nor does it typically include “murders of indigenous women associated with defense of communal properties, conflict among indigenous communities, and violent acts of mass killing due to the militarization of rural areas, and the presence of paramilitary groups” because of the narrow interpretation of what constitutes “gender reasons” (Frías, 2021, p. 7). Although the Latin American Protocol for Investigating Violent Deaths of Women for Gender Reasons 8 recognizes various forms of feminicide depending on the age and racial, sexual, and gender identity of victims, such as child, racist, lesbophobic, and transphobic feminicide, as well as the context in which the murder occurred, ranging from familial to prostitution and sex‐trafficking contexts (Frías, 2021, p. 6), the relationship between militarization and feminicide is absent, as is an indigenous feminist understanding of gender violence as inextricable from neocolonial violence geared toward the dispossession of indigenous land and the destruction of indigenous cultures and dissent (Frías, 2021, p. 7; Millan, 2022).…”