XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology (July 15-21, 2018)

JS-73

Femicide/Feminicide, Global Diagnosis and Responses

RC29 Deviance and Social Control (host committee)
RC51 Sociocybernetics
RC32 Women in Society

Language: Spanish, English and French

The way nation states respond to femicide has become the focus of international attention in developed and developing countries. While more than half the countries with high femicide rates are concentrated in South Africa & Latin America, no country is free from this type of violence. For example, inadequate state responses as well as historical and current impacts of colonization have been identified as contributors to high femicide risks faced by indigenous women and girls in Canada. This underscores the need to understand how states are responding to femicide, regardless of world region. The establishment of specialized investigation and prosecution units has been recommended by the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women to address the perceived impunity for those who perpetrate femicide. Some countries have passed legislation pertaining to femicide or codified femicide as a crime. These are positive steps. The challenge, however, is moving from legislative/policy initiatives to effective prevention which requires a better understanding of how society – social structures, processes, and relations – continues to contribute to this form of violence. A variety of approaches, including the sociological and sociocybernetical study of femicide, play a core role in the evolution of our understanding of this form of violence against women. This session seeks papers from social scientists, in an interdisciplinary way, examining the contributors and responses to femicide over time and across various regions or who are reflect upon historical and current responses.