Femicide the legislation of these new laws has helped Guatemala improve the awareness of femicide and reporting of the crime, but enforcement and justice for femicide still has not been totally achieved. Femicide as the socially tolerated murder of women in Guatemala relies on the presence of systematic impunity, historically rooted gender inequalities, and the pervasive normalization of violence as a social relation. Colombia has followed 16 other Latin American Countries by passing a law that define and punish femicide for being a specific crime. On July 6, 2015 the government of Colombia passed a law that legally defines femicide as
Femicide is the appearance of physical abuse, which was found in 79% of all femicide cases in North Carolina. Gun availability in the United States has also had a substantial effect on femicide, correlating to 67.9% of deaths in a study by Karen D. Stout. Living in neighborhoods with increased poverty, ethnic heterogeneity and decreased collective efficacy (social cohesion among neighbors) are all found to be linked to increased femicide rates in that area. Across the nation femicide rates vary, with the highest rate in 1985 being found in Alabama and the lowest in Iowa. Geographically, the highest prevalence of femicide