Femicide Femicide Femicide or feminicide is a sex-based hate crime term, broadly defined as "the intentional killing of females (women or girls) because they are females", though definitions vary depending on the cultural context. Feminist author Diana E. H. Russell was the first person to define and disseminate this term in 1976. She defines the word as "the killing of females by males because they are female." Other feminists place emphasis on the intention or purpose of the act being directed at females specifically because they are female; others include the killing of females by females. Often, the necessity of defining
Femicide the goals of many of these authors is to make femicide a separate category. In 2013, COST set up Action IS-1206 entitled "Femicide across Europe". The manifestations of femicide vary greatly. Using Diana Russell's definition, femicide includes intimate partner femicide, lesbicide, racial femicide, serial femicide, mass femicide, honor killing related femicide, dowry and more. Any act of sexual terrorism that results in death is considered a femicide. This includes forms of covert femicide as well, such as criminalization of abortion that leads to death from unsafe abortions, or death as a result of female genital mutilation. One of the most