Criminal Motivations in Femicide

Motivation represents the ‘why’ element of a crime, the driving force preceding the criminal action. Femicide is a crime inherently defined by motivation; the intentional killing of women and girls because of their gender. A deeper understanding of criminal motivations contributing to the act of femicide is therefore critical not only to better understand, but also to better respond to, and prevent this crime. This chapter presents a holistic exploration of criminal motivations in femicide, exploring the social, structural and individual causes of the crime. The chapter then explores the mixed use of pre-developed motivational typologies, with emphasis on the principles of situational crime prevention, to propose a framework which may assist in identifying criminal motivation in homicides with a female victim, in a forensic context.