Femicide Legislation: Lessons from Latin America

Abstract

Femicide is the killing of women because they are women. Previous research has examined femicide within specific countries in Latin America, but to date no regional assessment of the legislation and its effect on homicide rates has been conducted. This study analyzes femicide in Latin America at the regional level. A multi-stage mixed method analysis is conducted to examine how legislation has approached the problem of femicide and whether this has had an impact on the rates of femicide in the area. Beginning with a qualitative analysis, thirteen legislation summaries were examined to assess how has femicide been constructed as a social problem within legislation. Following this, a quantitative analysis was conducted on a variety of country-level variables including the focal variables female homicide rate and the introduction of legislation. Results of this analysis demonstrated that femicide legislation, in its current capacity, does not appear to be protecting women from femicide.