About femicide and raising awareness

Two weeks ago, during the victimology course in Dubrovnik, we attended a very interesting presentation by Prof. Hans-Jörg Albrecht and Anna-Maria Getos Kalac on 𝐟𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐝 (or femicide). The professors pointed out that classifying this behavior as a distinct crime actually has no preventive effect and that scientific studies do not support such criminalization; rather, it actually creates problems with law enforcement. The presentation caused a stir in the room, with one participant exclaiming, “𝐼 𝑑𝑜𝑛’𝑡 𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑, 𝑑𝑜𝑛’𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑠𝑒 𝑎𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠?”

The tragedy in Cosmopolis highlights the need for 𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠 regarding domestic violence, gender-based violence, risk assessment, and other related issues. This need is essential in Romanian society (and beyond). However, just like the professors mentioned above, I believe that the use of criminal law to address this need must be viewed with caution.

𝐌𝐚𝐢 𝐢̂𝐧𝐭𝐚̂𝐢, 𝐜𝐞 𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞 𝐟𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐮𝐥?

The definitions proposed in various laws and analyses differ, but generally speaking, this would be 𝐮𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐚 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭̦𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐚̆ 𝐚 𝐮𝐧𝐞𝐢 𝐟𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐢 𝐩𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐯 𝐝𝐞 𝐠𝐞𝐧 (in other words, because she is a woman) – see, for example, for statistical explanations, UNODC, para. 19 – https://www.unodc.org/…/Statistical_framework_femicide…

Of course, broader definitions include any killing of a woman (i.e., regardless of whether the motive is gender-related).

As a rule, the perpetrator is male, but this is not a requirement for the act to be classified as femicide.

If the murder is committed by a family member, it is still classified as femicide, but the element of domestic violence is also added.

𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐚 𝐥𝐚 𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐥 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐮 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐥𝐚 𝐟𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐝?

It varies widely: some countries explicitly criminalize femicide (particularly in South America, but more recently also in Europe—e.g., Croatia in 2024, and discussions in Italy in 2025), while others have aggravating factors or circumstances for murder that apply to such situations. Due to differing regulations and the methods used to collect data, it is difficult to conduct a clear statistical analysis of femicide cases (see also the UNODC document cited above).

𝐂𝐞 𝐬𝐩𝐮𝐧𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐥 𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐚̂𝐧?

The intentional killing of a person is punishable by imprisonment for a term of 10 to 20 years.

If the victim is pregnant, the penalty is imprisonment for 15 to 25 years or life imprisonment.

If the victim is a family member, the maximum prison sentence is increased by one-fourth.

If the offense is committed on the basis of gender, up to two years may be added to the maximum prison sentence.

𝐀𝐯𝐞𝐦 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢 𝐟𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐮𝐥 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭?

Yes, in the sense that any murder of a woman, including gender-based murder, is punishable by a maximum prison sentence of 20/22/25/27/30 years or life imprisonment, as applicable.

𝐂𝐮𝐦 𝐚𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚̆ 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭̦𝐞𝐥𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐚̆ 𝐩𝐞𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐩𝐬𝐚̆?

I did a quick search for case law regarding the murder (completed, not attempted) of a pregnant woman (although necessary, a study of penalties for domestic violence in cases of murder, regardless of the applicable mitigating circumstances, would require a significant amount of time and resources).

I found four court rulings on the Rejust portal. In two cases, the sentence was life imprisonment. The perpetrator was the victim’s partner. In a third case, the sentence was 22 years in prison (the perpetrator was the brother of the victim’s partner, who was angry at the entire family). The fourth ruling is not final; the sentence is 23 years in prison, and the perpetrator is the victim’s partner.

However, I also found several cases involving the attempted murder of a pregnant woman, where the sentences range from 7 years and 6 months to 14 years.

Note: According to the Criminal Code, in cases of attempted offenses, the range of penalties (minimum and maximum) is reduced by half.

𝐀𝐯𝐞𝐦 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢 𝐝𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐚 𝐂𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐮𝐢 𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐥?

Legally speaking, no; as I mentioned, there are legal provisions that cover various situations of femicide. I want to emphasize that no, we cannot impose life imprisonment as the sole punishment for these situations (this applies only in cases of genocide during wartime).

From a criminological perspective, I am not aware of any study showing that the separate regulation of such an offense has led to a decrease in the number of femicide cases. On the contrary, as I mentioned, this creates new and ongoing challenges in law enforcement (as has happened in other cases, e.g., recently—sexual offenses), which actually complicate the proceedings.

So, what's the deal?

There are many people more knowledgeable than I am who have studied the causes and ways to prevent this phenomenon—see, for example, what Mihaela Ghirca wrote yesterday. This post is not about those solutions, because I haven’t researched them thoroughly enough.

However, I will limit myself here to a quote from the UNODC Report on Femicide in 2023 (https://www.unwomen.org/…/femicides-in-2023-global…):

“Avalanche of data for the𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠 – 𝐹𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 (2019–2022), 𝑆𝑜𝑢𝑡ℎ 𝐴𝑓𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑎 (2020–2021) and 𝐶𝑜𝑙𝑜𝑚𝑏𝑖𝑎 (2014–2017) – 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑎 𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑡 of the Komen Foundation through𝑟 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑠 (between 22 and 37 per cent) 𝑎𝑑 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑙𝑦 𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚 𝑜𝑓 𝑝ℎ𝑦𝑠𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙, sexual or psychological violence𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑏𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑛𝑒𝑟. These are the main𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑤𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑛 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒.”

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Almost every tragedy in Romania has been used to bring about a legislative change. Some were perhaps necessary; others are completely inappropriate. I cannot forget, for example, how the tragedy in Caracal was used to introduce Article 266(1)(1) of the Criminal Code (failure to report child trafficking and other crimes), justified by the fact that a taxi driver saw the victim get into a car. It remains unclear how the current regulation (which itself generates many problems) could have prevented what happened…

Yes, we need to 𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠, but not like that.

Conclusion: let’s leave the Criminal Code alone—that’s not where the solution lies. Or, to quote someone very dear to me: 𝑑𝑎𝑐𝑎̆ 𝑣𝑟𝑒𝑚 𝑠𝑎̆ 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑖𝑚, 𝑛𝑢 𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑎 𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑒𝑎.