Improving data collection on femicide in Europe
The policy brief Improving the collection of national administrative data on femicide in the EU, published by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), outlines how EU countries can improve their administrative data systems to more accurately record gender-related killings of women.
The publication presents findings from the most recent EU-wide collection of national administrative data on intimate partner violence and domestic violence, and provides recommendations to improve national administrative data collection on femicide for both the European institutions and the Member States.
Collecting national and regional-level administrative data on femicide is a key action to understand the scale of this phenomenon. However, despite numerous calls for action at the international and EU levels, femicide still remains under-reported and misclassified, and most Member States have not yet established common legal definitions for femicide.
As highlighted by the policy brief, in recent years there has been significant progress across the EU in defining and measuring femicide, particularly in Member States' capacity to disaggregate data by the sex of the victim and perpetrator, as well as the nature of their relationship.
According to EIGE, for a more accurate understanding and response to femicide and capture the full extent of women killed by men’s violence, it is necessary to expand the category of femicide.
Member States are also encouraged to adopt a common legal definition of femicide, and to systematically collect disaggregated data by sex of the victim and the perpetrator and relationship type. To improve risk assessment toolsIt, the policy brief also advocates for expanding data collection to include contextual and circumstantial information about the killings.
