Italy’s parliament on Tuesday approved a law that introduces femicide into the country’s criminal law and punishes it with life in prison.

The vote coincided with the international day for the elimination of violence against women, a day designated by the U.N. General Assembly.

The law won bipartisan support from the center-right majority and the center-left opposition in the final vote in the Lower Chamber, passing with 237 votes in favor.

The law, backed by the conservative government of Premier Giorgia Meloni, comes in response to a series of killings and other violence targeting women in Italy. It includes stronger measures against gender-based crimes including stalking and revenge porn.

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[–] 228 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (155 children)

People here seem weirdly confused about the term "feminicide": it means homicide motivated by misogyny. It's a subset of hate crimes.

They exist in all western societies I'm aware of, if you're confused it's probably only because you're unused to thinking of women as a protected class and hate for women as aggravating circumstances, the way hate for any race of religion is in most legal systems.

Yes they're 50% of the population, but also yes they're disproportionately the targets of violence because misogyny exists. Yet they are rarely treated as such in many legal systems.

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  • [–] 87 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    Genuinely thought it just meant killing a woman and was confused

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  • [–] 50 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    It does get misused in that exact way sometimes. I'm from Mexico, these cases have been making big headlines here for a while now, some prosecutors are misclassifying cases as femicide to grab attention to their political careers.

    Local one a couple of years ago where a dude ran over a woman. Local prosecutor was pushing for femicide, fortunately it was moved to manslaughter as it should have been from the start. Not everything constitutes a hate crime and cases like that (in my opinion at least) would make the distinction meaningless

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  • [–] 43 points 9 months ago (124 children)

    It seems weird to consider half the people as "protected class". But only one gender. Dunno why they didn't just make hate crime the charge and make misogyny fall under that

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  • [–] 48 points 9 months ago* (69 children)

    They're a protected class because they're singled out for violence because of their class. And it's a real world problem not a logic quiz. Misogyny and misandry are not equivalent in reality the way they are in the dictionary.

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  • [–] 26 points 9 months ago (3 children)

    I would assume the thinking is centered around wanting to draw specific attention to the issue. And to more clearly cite it as a unique thing for awareness purposes.

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  • [–] 23 points 9 months ago* (2 children)

    This. The goal is to send a message. Over half the women killed were murdered by intimate partners. Such a crime would already be punished by life imprisonment for Aggravated Homicide.

    However femicide also includes refusal for emotional relationship, or resistance to limiting her freedom as motivators, as admissible motives for femicide.

    https://eige.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/20211564_mh0421097enn_pdf_0.pdf

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    [–] 49 points 9 months ago* (5 children)

    "Let's slap a bandaid instead of fixing the underlying societal problems causing this and score some popularity points" - every politician ever.

    Edit: okay maybe there are a few smart politicians, but they're not scoring the popularity points with this:

    “Italy is one of only seven countries in Europe where sex and relationship education is not yet compulsory in schools, and we are calling for it to be compulsory in all school cycles,” said the head of Italy’s Democratic Party, Elly Schlein. “Repression is not enough without prevention, which can only start in schools.”

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    [–] 34 points 9 months ago (6 children)

    A lot of people in here seem upset for some reason.

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    [–] 20 points 9 months ago (2 children)
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    [–] 20 points 9 months ago (48 children)

    Does this imply that previously killing women wasn't criminal in Italy?

    I presume that femicide is a subset of "homicide", but I can't tell if it means "any killing of a woman", "any killing of a woman by a man", "any killing of a woman because she's a woman", or "any killing of a woman by a man because she's a woman".

    And I shudder to imagine how trans-women and trans-men fit into this weirdly sexist label.

    (In America we have nice gender-neutral crimes, with enhancers if it was done out of prejudicial hate.)

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  • [–] 40 points 9 months ago (26 children)

    It means the murder of a woman motivated by misogyny. It is a subset of homicide and also a subset of hate crimes. It can be thought of as recognizing misogyny as a motive of hate and thus an aggravating circumstance to a homicide, and women as a protected class. Killing a trans woman or a trans man could very well get a "transphobia" label for a double hate crime, depending on the motives that get established. This is not as complicated as you seem to believe.

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  • [–] 14 points 9 months ago (25 children)

    It's not complicated, it's just sexist and not explained in the linked article.

    If a man kills a woman out of hatred for women that's a terrible crime and should be severely punished. But if a woman kills a man out of hatred for men, that is exactly as horrific a crime and should be punished no less severely.

    Sexism in law benefits nobody.

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  • [–] 16 points 9 months ago (10 children)

    It isn't sexism in law. Laws are written in blood. If women are frequently being killed because they refused sex or a relationship, then a law should exist as a deterrent. It isn't just "killing a woman because they hate women," it's specifically in cases where women are stalked, harassed, or pursued non-consensually for sex or a relationship. If women were targeting men in the same way, a law should exist in that case as well. That isn't the case, though. Women are VASTLY disproportionately killed by men for reasons pertaining to sex and relationships compared to the other way around.

    Italy sees a problem: women are being frequently killed by intimate partners, stalkers, and harassers specifically because of their gender. They made a law to deter that. If the opposite problem presents itself they should do the same.

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    [+] 16 points 9 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (11 children)
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    [–] 16 points 9 months ago (4 children)

    Since when have stronger punishments deterred crimes?

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  • [–] 11 points 9 months ago

    Also isn't killing a person based on an immutable characteristic (race, sex, etc) already a hate crime? In the US if someone kills a woman or girl primarily because of their sex that is a hate crime on top of being first degree murder (which is a serious enough offense as it is).

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    [–] 15 points 9 months ago (8 children)

    There needs to be more accountability for law enforcement for this too have any real effect. Studies show up to 40% of law enforcement self identify as domestic abusers. So why would they investigate themselves?

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    [–] 13 points 9 months ago (19 children)

    This is confusing. So killing a woman is now criminally worse than killing a man? That seems absurd.

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    ♡ step in the right direction ♡

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  • [–] 12 points 9 months ago (15 children)

    I don't see how the femicide part makes any sense or difference. There were already the exact same punishments for killing of anyone, so isn't this essentially copy pasting existing laws but with a specific group highlight? If that's the case, it will do absolutely nothing.

    The second part is fine, though I hope it's meant for everyone and not just women. I don't know about Italy specifically, but in many European countries if you fall victim to these crimes as a man, you'll likely receive no help.

    Would be great to see some more protections for everyone, as well as more serious punishments for violations against anyone. Making anything like this gender-specific will just fuel already problematic anti-other-gender sentiment.

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    [–] 11 points 9 months ago (7 children)

    It take a certain type of flaw in logic to assume that because a group is “getting” something, it means another group is losing something.

    What if one group is getting something unproportionally more than the other.

    That creates inequality, essentially meaning that the disadvantaged group is losing something. I.e. they get less that the other group.

    So yeah, if you give one group much more than the other, they are losing something.

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