Feminicide Violence Before and During the COVID-19 Health Emergency

Abstract

This work explores the extreme violence against women before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Peru, considering different restriction periods. This is relevant in view of increased violence against women. The objective of this work was to identify the feminicide and attempted feminicide during different quarantine periods due to the COVID-19 health emergency in Peru, and to determine the variables related to these. Data of administrative records of the cases of feminicide and attempted feminicide were analyzed. Our results show that cases of attempted feminicide occurred in higher proportions during the prequarantine period compared to the other periods. In the case of feminicide, its highest percentage occurred during quarantine with a relationship relatively intense when the victim has suffered physical and psychological violence. Also, we find that attempted feminicide was 4.3 times more likely to happen to urban resident victims, 7.9 times more likely when women suffered physical violence, and 7.4 times when they were victims of psychological violence. During quarantine, attempted feminicide was more likely when a victim lives in an urban area (3.5 times), when the victim suffered physical and psychological violence (21.7 and 5.2 times, respectively), and 3.1 times more likely when the attempted feminicide occurred inside the household. The cases of attempted feminicide that occurred during restrictive measures are 5.0 times more likely when a victim belongs to urban areas, 23.4 times more likely when the woman suffered physical violence, and 4.3 times more likely when she was a victim of psychological violence.

Femicide and Attempted Femicide before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Chile

“…In a similar study conducted in Peru that described the attempted femicide and femicide cases during pre-quarantine, quarantine, and restrictive-measures periods during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, there was a significantly higher proportion of fatal cases during the quarantine period (32.6%) compared with the other periods (pre-quarantine: 19.9% and restrictive measures: 22.0%). Similar to our findings, the attempted-femicide risk in Peru increased with antecedents of physical and psychological violence (i.e., previous legal complaints), as well as living in urban areas during the three scenarios [39].…”

The Devil in the Details: Changes Under Stable Trends of Femicide in Italy During COVID-19 Lockdowns

“…In Peru, the trend of homicides involving women followed a U-shape: femicides decreased during the first weeks of the pandemic and then rebounded (Calderon-Anyosa et al, 2021). A different study on Peru (Bardales Mendoza et al, 2022) and a study on Chile (Cantor et al, 2022) showed an increase in the number of attempted femicides during the quarantine period. The same Chilean study also observed a stability in the number of femicides before and during the pandemic period, with a reduction of cases in places with higher socioeconomic conditions (Cantor et al, 2022).…”

Spaces of Anti-Ableist, Feminist Resistance

“…During the COVID-19 pandemic, targeted populations, such as people of color, people with disabilities, and women experienced heightened levels of precarity and violence (Bardales Mendoza et al, 2021;Cetina, 2021;Perry et al, 2021;Weil, 2020) Militarized quarantine in countries of the global south (Collantes, 2021;Molina Aguilar & López, 2021) made it almost impossible to continue with traditional activist strategies, such as protests and inperson meetings. The new pandemic dynamic changed and disrupted the modus operandi of social movements (Bao, 2020;Mendes, 2020;Pleyers, 2020).…”