Motivations for the crime of femicide: Integrative literature review

Abstract

We sought to identify which are the motivations for the crime of femicide. We performed a data collection in the SCIELO, CAPES, and BVS journals, in Portuguese, English, and Spanish, including articles published between 2015 and 2019. We selected 11 researches that met the inclusion criteria. The results were organized into eight categories: “Separation/end of a relationship”; “Jealousy”; “It was her fault: the woman's conduct,” “Alcohol and other drugs and mental disorders,” “The way out of the job market,” “Rape followed by femicide and drug trafficking,” “When the woman is the mastermind of the crime,” “Masculinities, violence and the defense of honor”. We observed that the motivations for the crime of femicide were intertwined with gender mandates, that is, when a woman does not perform the expected femininity, she may be at risk of life and that the mandates of masculinity gave intelligibility in the justification of the crime.