Apr 22, 2026
On the Criminalization of Femicide in a Comparative Legal Perspective
- 13:00 to 15:00
- Colloquium
- Konstanze Jarvers
- Emily Silverman
- Cristina Valega Chipoco
What does it mean to kill a woman because she is a woman? And does such violence challenge criminal law’s claim to neutrality?
This talk examines the criminalisation of femicide from a comparative legal and human rights perspective. It discusses the concept of gender-based killings of women and the debates surrounding the recognition of femicide as a distinct legal category. The presentation focuses in particular on Latin America, where nineteen countries have introduced specific criminal provisions addressing femicide, while also considering emerging discussions in European legal contexts. Through this comparison, the talk reflects on the possibilities and limits of criminal law in responding to gender-based killings.
Legal researchers and lawyers Cristina Valega Chipoco, Konstanze Jarvers and Emiliy Silverman at the MPI for the Study of Crime, Security and Law in Freiburg/Breisgau focus on the 21st century treatment in various legal systems of femicide. The goal of their project is to gain insight into how selected legal systems have chosen to deal with femicide. For more see the MPI-CSL website. There you will find, among other things a podcast episode, in which Cristina speaks with host Anna Schaich about the ways in which the justice system and policymakers could combat femicide (in German).
Copyright: Konstanze Jarvers
About Cristina
Cristina is a doctoral researcher in Criminal Law at the MPI CSL. Her main foci are: Gender, sexualities, and law; consent and sexual offences; gender-based violence, gender stereotypes; as well as international human rights law. On top of her work in the femicide project she heads further projects at the institute: Analysis of the Constitutional Gender Order in 21st Century Peruvian Jurisprudence and Legal Perspectives on Acts of Sexual Violence through Condom Deception as a Means of Vitiating Sexual Consent (“Stealthing”) as well as The Element of Non-Consent in the Offence of Rape: A Focus on Peruvian Law In 2019 she qualified summa cum laude as as attorney-at-law (abogada) in Peru, where she subsequently worked in 2019/2020 for the Peruvian Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations (Ministerio de la Mujer y Poblaciones Vulnerables), and in 2021/2022 as research consultant for Gender Justice Commission of the Peruvian Judiciary (Comisión de Justicia de Género del Poder Judicial) as well as for the United Nations Development Programme in Lima) on the impact of gender stereotypes in consumption and advertising in Peru. At the same time she received her M.St. in Women’s Studies with merit from the University of Oxford. Since August 2022 she is a doctoral researcher at the MPI-CSL.
Contact and Registration
The MPIWG Gender Colloquium 2025/26 is open to all: academics, students, and members of the public are all welcome to attend, listen, and participate in the discussion. Please register here: gleichstellung@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de
About This Series
Evidently, feminist progress and male violence grow concurrently: the feminist paradox signifies that the more equal women become, the more hatred and violence they face. Today we can see misogyny —Frauenhass in German—everywhere, including new forms of violence such as cyberbullying. It is a proven fact that misogynist violence is constantly on the rise—that is, violence specifically directed at women, such as domestic violence, femicide, sexual assault, stalking, hate speech, and pathological attempts to control their lives.
Women’s right to make decisions about their bodies should be self-evident, yet it is enshrined in law in only a few countries around the world. Historical trajectories show that reproductive biases are aligned along the axes of class, race, ethnicity, and gender. Hence, we use reproductive rights as a common, intersectional thread to investigate the backlash against feminism, which has culminated in an ever-increasing onslaught. There can be no doubt that the current backlash against women’s rights goes hand-in-hand with the rise of far-right extremism.
The 2025/26 Gender Colloquium at the Institute brings together scholars and professionals from the medical and biomedical sciences, public health institutions, media and film, political and legal sciences, and the humanities to confront the issues of abortion, early marriage and female genital cutting, femicide, forced sterilization, #MeToo, and reproductive regimes.