Italy becomes latest nation to legally recognise ‘femicide’: What it means

Italy joins a handful of nations — including Mexico and Chile — that specifically criminalise femicide. The law mandates life imprisonment as punishment. What led to the gender-specific law, and why do the vast majority of countries still lack such laws? We explain.

What is femicide?

It is considered among the most severe manifestations of crimes targeting women. A 2022 framework developed by several United Nations bodies divided femicides into three categories, based on the women’s relation to their attacker(s). These were intentional homicides or killings of women and girls perpetrated by intimate partners, by other family members (blood relatives and relatives by marriage or adoption), and by other perpetrators.

A UN Women report found that in 2024, nearly 50,000 women and girls were killed by their intimate partners or other family members. However, it noted that not all countries released detailed data on the subject.

As for the reasons for femicide, it found that academic research has largely focused on “individual and socio-political factors, arguing that gender-based violence against women and girls is rooted in patriarchal structures that institutionalize male dominance and control.” Thus, solutions would also range from the structural (legal, policing-related) to the cultural (societal perceptions and attitudes towards gender).

Why are separate laws enacted for femicide?

While most countries do not criminalise femicide, they have laws to punish crimes against women. In India, for instance, dowry deaths have separate legal provisions associated with them. Many others consider the victim’s gender an aggravating factor, which can invite stronger punishment.

However, the idea behind such laws is that since these crimes have an added layer of gender identity as a motive, they need to be recognised as having a separate basis for them. Recognising femicide, in particular, can help in creating societal awareness against gender-based discrimination and violence.

In Italy, the law was seen as a response to a series of recent violent incidents against women that made headlines. The year 2023 saw a college student killed, with her ex-boyfriend later convicted for the crime. What grabbed public attention was the scale of the violence — the attacker reportedly stabbed her 70 times — and the details of the harassment she endured.

A BBC report noted that the investigation formed a picture of “an increasingly anguished young woman harassed by her possessive ex-boyfriend who refused to accept the end of their relationship.”

To raise awareness about controlling and abusive relationships, her family later shared a list she wrote a few months before her death, titled “15 reasons I had to break up with him”. “In it, Ms Cecchettin said Mr Turetta insisted she had a “duty” to help him study, complained if she sent him fewer emoji hearts than usual, didn’t want her to go out with friends and needed her to text him all the time.”

In many other countries, such as Mexico, similar incidents spurred public protests and femicide laws. But that does not mean these laws are without flaws, and experts have pointed to their broad definitions as impacting the legal principles of criminality.

To ensure effectiveness, they would also have to be accompanied by improvements in other aspects of the legal system. For instance, in Italy, another debate is on in Parliament to codify that sex without consent constitutes rape. Italian law currently defines sexual violence as forcing someone to perform or undergo sexual acts “through violence, threats, or abuse of authority”, according to a Reuters report.

Leaders of the conservative League party, led by Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, raised objections, stating that the change could “leave room for personal vendettas which would clog courts with tens of thousands of suits”.