Femicide in Belgium: Quantification, Data and Analysis

Audrey Plavsic , UCLouvain

Trends in homicide mortality have generally been falling since the 19th century in Belgium, but mainly for men: homicide death rates have not changed as much for women. In June 2023, Belgium passed a law to combat feminicide, aimed at defining and taking action against these gender-based murders through the collection and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data. We are conducting this study to quantify the homicides of women in Belgium, most of which occur within couples. To do this, we compensate for the lack of official figures by using unpublished data sources: the press and data from public prosecutors' offices between 2017 and 2023. We put these observations into a longer context by using data from population registers. The aim of this research is therefore to compare the reliability of these data sources and to extract as much information as possible about the perpetrator, the victim and the circumstances of the death, in order to gain a better understanding of the stages leading up to it. We are also seeking to highlight the socio-demographic characteristics of the people involved in these deaths. This approach is part of a Domestic Homicide Review, a method of analysis designed to improve our knowledge of the phenomenon, to learn from the way in which these cases have been handled, and to formulate avenues for improvement in terms of prevention through the introduction of policies and measures.

See extended abstract

 Presented in Session 102. The Impact of Violence on Health, Wellbeing and Morbidity