Femicide of these measures have had a positive effect on lowering the femicide rate. Other effective legislation against femicide include legislation that defines civil injunction relief; defines physical abuse as a criminal offense'; allows arrest without a warrant; requires data collection and reporting; and provides funds for women's shelters. Serial femicide is defined as "the sexually sadistic killing of women," also called "sexual terrorism". Feminists emphasize that many cases of serial murder can also be considered to be cases of male-perpetrated crimes against women as a means for men to achieve sexual gratification and dominance over women. They claim that gender-neutral
Femicide and investigation can often differ based on race of the victim. According to Diana Russell and Jill Radford, lesbicide, also known as homophobic femicide, has a long history of legalized murder of lesbians in many different cultural contexts: Today, lesbianism is no longer a capital crime but it remains criminalized by many governments and condemned by most religions. Torture and murder of lesbians occurs in every part of the world, even in "developed" countries. According to Dr. Susan Hawthorne of Victoria University, "...domination is exemplified in the punishment of lesbians as outsiders in patriarchal culture..." Dr. Hawthorne goes on to