Femicide is a crime of power: learning a new vocabulary

Riv Psichiatr. 2026 May-Jun;61(3):134-140. doi: 10.1708/4714.47298.

ABSTRACT

Femicide represents an unparalleled criminal phenomenon both in Italy and worldwide, characterized by tolerance and substantial impunity rooted in a culture shared even by institutions. With Law No. 181 of 2025, Italy stands among the few European countries to have included the crime of femicide into the penal code, clearly defining the discriminatory structure of a crime too often romanticized and reduced to a private matter. Article 577-bis punishes anyone who causes the death of a woman with life imprisonment when the crime is committed as an act of hatred, discrimination, abuse, control, possession or domination on a woman. WHO data show that 35% of women experience violence, especially within the family, and that the leading cause of death for women aged 16 to 44 is murder by their partner or ex-partner. Globally, 137 femicides occur every day, approximately 50,000 per year. Only 10.5% of victims report to authorities. The Italian Commission of Inquiry found that 90% of 211 femicides were committed in an affective and familial context, and only in 15% of cases women had previously reported abuse. Male violence against women is systematic and discriminatory in every social, cultural and economic context. Binding supranational sources (CEDAW, ECHR, Istanbul Convention, EU Directives) are based on the assumption that these crimes are rooted in unequal relations between the sexes. The psychiatrisation of femicide perpetrators represents an interpretive distortion that makes invisible the discriminatory nature of the crime. International scientific evidence confirms that only a small percentage of femicides are committed by subjects with diagnosed mental disorders.

PMID:42273905 | DOI:10.1708/4714.47298