‘Femicide’ and ‘Feminicide’: History, Typologies, Contexts, and Complexities

All those acts of violence against women are not isolated elements; these acts come from a systematized subordination towards women, generating environments of persistent inequality in different contexts and violating women’s needs and rights. This chapter focuses on those forms of extreme gender-based violence: Femi[ni]cide. This concept has been evolving and building up to its formal conception in postmodern societies through terms such as ‘Femicide’ and evolving to the construct of ‘Feminicide’ in which is added the responsibility of all those State structures in charge of the protection of the Human Rights of women. Its history and theoretical construction are illustrated in the early paragraphs of this chapter. However, Femi[ni]cide constitutes a particular phenomenon that can be differentiated not only from other types of lethal violence but also intragroup, as a series of events that occurs in various forms and contexts with particular characteristics (e.g., intimate Feminicide, sexual Feminicide, transphobic Feminicide, concealed Feminicide, among others), which require to be investigated in a differentiated, specialized, and detailed manner, considering (sub)cultural, institutional and structural variables from an ecological approach. The chapter highlights the relevance of contextual analysis in understanding Femi[ni]cide better and the interrelationship between the various risk factors and protective variables.