Femicide

The killing of a woman or girl because of her gender, a term used in criminology and international human rights law to distinguish gender motivated killings from homicide generally, encompassing intimate partner killings, killings connected to dowry disputes or so-called honor, and killings of women in the context of organized crime or armed conflict. A number of Latin American countries, beginning with Costa Rica in 2007 and followed by Mexico, Guatemala and others, have enacted femicide as a distinct criminal offense carrying penalties higher than ordinary homicide, reflecting a documented pattern in which most female homicide victims are killed by a current or former intimate partner or family member, a pattern far less common among male homicide victims. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime tracks femicide statistics separately from overall homicide data as part of its effort to measure gender related killing worldwide.