Issues in measuring and comparing the incidence of intimate partner homicide and femicide - A focus on Europe

Abstract

Intimate partner homicide is an important contributor to homicide rates worldwide, disproportionally affecting women as victims. Still, major gaps exist in the measurement of intimate partner homicide, with many homicides not being identified as intimate partner homicides. This article provides an overview of the main issues in the collection and reporting on intimate partner homicide, focusing in particular on the data situation in Europe. Sources of homicide data-national and police statistics, court statistics and files, mortuary data and newspaper databases-face similar challenges, namely absence or missing information on the victim-offender relationship, and different categorizations of key parameters, such as definition of intimate partner homicide, and identification of reporting periods. This is concerning, as strong and reliable data on the incidence and contextual information of intimate partner homicide and femicide is important to advice effective prevention strategies.

Gendered pandemics:suicide, femicide and COVID-19

“…In practice, data collection of global femicide statistics is in its infancy. A recent article comparing the collection of data for intimate partner homicide and femicide shows that there is so much missing information that it is hard to make any comparisons between countries in Europe or internationally (Stoeckl et al, 2020). In many data systems, which include official police statistics, court files, mortuary data, and media reports, the gender of the victim is not reported.…”