The Punishment of Femicide

Femicide represents the ultimate and most brutal expression of gender-based violence, the lethal endpoint of a spectrum of abuse rooted in structural inequality and patriarchal power. To develop more effective legal interventions, it is critical to first understand the scope of the problem and the persistent shortcomings of existing state responses. A comprehensive approach requires moving beyond treating these killings as isolated criminal acts and instead recognizing them as the product of systemic failures and enduring patterns of male domination.

Feminist analysis frames the killing of women not as an aberration, but as a predictable consequence of a social order that normalizes female subordination. For decades, scholars have linked domestic violence to historical concepts of women as property and to cultural scripts that inculcate passivity in women while encouraging aggression and possessiveness in men. Violence in this context is instrumental; it is deployed to maintain or re-establish unequal power relations, particularly when a woman challenges the established hierarchy by asserting her autonomy or attempting to leave a relationship. This context of domination and control, rather than random criminality, is the defining feature of the violence that culminates in femicide.

Despite significant institutional efforts over the past two decades in jurisdictions like Spain—including pioneering legislation, specialised courts, and public awareness campaigns—the problem persists with alarming tenacity. Statistical analysis reveals that the rate of intimate partner femicides has shown only a limited decline, suggesting that legal reforms, while essential, have been insufficient to dismantle the deeply entrenched cultural patterns that enable these crimes.