Femicides: A long debate

Abstract

The problem of women 's violent deaths was denounced by feminist movements for over thirty years. Therefore, it is a longstanding knowledge that gender violence has a lethal expression over women. However, the acknowledgment of these deaths as "feminicide" is a more recent process. The aim of the present article is to present an outlook of the Latin American feminist epistemological production which recognizes three emphasis in the analysis, understanding and response to those femicides. The first emphasis is described as a set of several violent deaths due to gender . The second is the murders whose characteristics conforms a femicide and finally the third emphasis is the revindication for a specific criminal response to the phenomenon. The debate is longlasting, but it is extremely relevant due to women 's violent death rates.