Femicide common and least publicized forms of femicide is that committed by an intimate partner of a female, such as a current or former husband, boyfriend or common-law husband. This form of femicide accounts for at least 35% of all murders of woman globally Different areas of the world experience varying types of femicide. For example, the Middle East and South Asia have higher rates of honor killing which is defined as the murder of women by their family due to an actual or assumed sexual or behavioral transgression such as adultery, sexual intercourse, or even rape. Depending on the definition,
Femicide motive is not always empirically possible to be determined, and so must be removed from the qualification for femicide in order to gather data. On the other hand, authors Desmond Ellis and Walter Dekesedery take a different approach by viewing the definition for femicide as "the intentional killing of females by males". These feminists require that femicide always be intentional unlike the inclusion of covert femicide in Diana Russell's definition. Most of these definitions imply that the perpetrator of femicide is a man, but South Asian feminists differ in their definition stating that femicide is "the intentional killing of females