We prevent femicide through knowledge and tools for prevention!
Femicide Watch is a research unit which monitors and collects knowledge about the killing of women in Denmark
Femicide Watch collects knowledge and data about murders of women in Denmark. The purpose is both to inform about the killing of women and to produce new knowledge that can be used in prevention work.
The important work we do is currently driven by volunteers. However, the CMA is working purposefully to get the effort on the Finance Act for 2023. If you want to support the work in the meantime, you can read more here.
UN RECOMMENDATION FOR A NATIONAL FEMICIDE WATCH
In 2015, the UN called on its member states to establish a national "femicide watch". The initiative aims to prevent femicides through the collection of national data on femicides, with the aim of comparing the data at national, international and global level. The aim is to identify shortcomings in national laws and policies as well as the lack of implementation of preventive measures.
The Center for Power Analysis' mapping of femicides in the period 2000-2021 is thus the foundation of a Danish femicide watch. But the work is not finished. The CMA will continue to map femicides and collect knowledge and data on the killing of women.
CMA has mapped 240 Danish femicides committed in the years 2000-2021
The aim is to break the taboo surrounding violence against and killing of women
Project manager, Anna Bernsen, journalist and criminologist, states:
"There must be much more focus on preventing violence and murder of women if we are to reduce the statistics which show that one woman every month becomes a victim of partner murder. In a mapping of 240 murders between the years 2000-2021, the CMA has identified that the motive for the murder in 35 of the cases was jealousy. It shows us that femicide is a problem that must be prevented through information and knowledge about gender, power hierarchies and masculinity.”
Excerpt from the report Mapping and Analysis of Danish Femicides, 2000-2021
What does femicide mean?
The CMA defines a femicide as a misogynistic killing of a woman: The woman has been killed because she is a woman. This definition is broad, but includes, among other things partner killing and killing with an honor-related or sexual motive.
In Denmark, CMA has taken the lead in incorporating the concept into both research and the wider public. Because while there is extensive literature with femicide as a central concept abroad, the term was largely unknown until recently at home. The purpose of Femicide Watch is therefore also to spread femicide as a concept.
Article: It's time we talk about femicide
“The use of the specific word femicide – rather than the gender-neutral word murder – is important for several reasons. By using femicide, we first and foremost recognize that misogynistic killing of women is a separate issue that requires separate solutions.”
We have written an article about the concept which has been published in POV. Read the rest of the article here.
In connection with 25 November 2021, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, we wrote an article for POV International, where we focus on the concept of femicide and problematize the lack of Danish research in the area.
We have made a literature review which brings together all Danish research on homicide in Denmark, with a focus on partner homicide, which is a form of femicide. Here we focus on the fact that many forms of femicide cannot be read in the available homicide statistics. Read the literature review here.
I gennemgangen af dansk forskning konstaterede vi flere videnshuller
- There is only one qualitative Danish study that deals with partner homicide.
- There is no Danish research on women who have survived an attempted murder by an (ex)partner.
- There is no Danish research that uncovers the delayed effects of attempted murders and their consequences.
- There is no knowledge of murder (attempts) directed at men, or LGBTQIA+ people in relationships.
- The leading researchers in the field in Denmark are forensic doctors, and in Denmark there is no social science research on the prevention of femicide.
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CVR 41393025