According to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics in 2021, “76% of female murders were perpetrated by someone known to the victim.”
My point may already present itself with the following question: who did it? The person responsible for murdering these women is usually men.
The issue of femicide and gender-based violence against women is not just a gender-based issue. It is a world issue, only solvable by the involvement of every person, regardless of gender, to stop the normalization of the murder of women (and people) by men.
This is not to say that women are the only victims of murder. In 2021, a striking 17,970 men were murdered and 56% of those were by someone known to them. Yet only 6% of those men were victims of intimate partner homicide, and in 2011 the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program of the FBI published a comprehensive homicide study found 89.3% of murders were by men.
Women are statistically more likely to be killed by a man. Men are more likely to be killed by a man. People of any preferred gender identity are more likely to be killed by someone who identifies as a man.
I know this is a lot of frightening, blunt information, but I am so tired of seeing the media refuse to directly highlight what we know to be facts, which is that men are murdering people at a much higher rate than women.
In September 2024, following the Paris Olympics, Olympic runner Rebecca Cheptegei was murdered by her former partner, a man named Dickson Ndiema. I was shocked that he killed her by burning her, and then from the attack, she unintentionally died.
Because of the Olympics’ popularity, this story caused an outcry against the global murders of women and femicide in various countries, and more news sources started talking about gender-based violence.
However, the media coverage of female murder victims is not easy to read. I think it is obvious that the news media may shy away from covering something so frequent and disturbing as murder for the sake of positivity, but these stories keep happening, and the stories of many female victims are ignored.
In the headlines, it should be clear who committed the murder and who is the victim. Even though we want to pay homage to the victim of a crime, knowing who is behind the crime will help Americans recognize this pattern of male-perpetuated crime against women and men.
Cathy Krauseneck was killed by her husband, who wasn’t convinced until 40 years after her death.
Breonna Taylor was killed by a male police officer.
Not to mention the thousands of Native American women whose murders are barely reported on despite “the murder rate [being] ten times higher than the national average for women living on reservations” and murder being the “third leading cause of death for Native women,” according to Native Hope, an organization which addresses the injustices done to Native Americans and provides resources.
We cannot shy away from this pattern and must ask ourselves what we can do. What should we educate ourselves on? How do we work together to stop this issue without making it a gender-divided topic?
UN Women suggests that murders of women, “can and must be prevented through primary prevention initiatives focused on transforming harmful social norms and engaging whole communities and societies to create zero tolerance for violence against women. Early intervention and risk assessment, access to survivor-centered support and protection as well as gender-responsive policing and justice services are key to ending gender-related killings of women and girls.”
Murder is not an inevitability, nor is it a partisan issue. The murder of women can and should be addressed because it is preventable.