The Undeclared War On Women in Europe

Mediterranean Institute for Investigative Reporting miir.gr

Janine Louloudi europeandatajournalism.eu

The Undeclared War On Women in Europe

- 19 European teams of journalists between between October 2022 and February 2023 collaborated to find new data in at least 22 countries.

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- The investigation was organised and coordinated by MIIR, with data analysis and check from iMedD Lab.

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- Collaboration within the framework of the European Data Journalism Network (EDJNet).

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• The investigation was published in March 2023 in 3 parts on miir.gr & EfSyn Newspaper, as well as the outlets of the participating teams.

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- 16 EDJNet members participated in this investigation:

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• MIIR, iMedD Lab (Greece)
• Deutsche Welle (Germany)
• Openpolis, OBC Transeuropa (Italy)
• Civio, El Confidencial (Spain)
• Divergente (Portugal)
• CINS (Serbia)
• Pod črto (Slovenia)
• BIQdata/Gazeta Wyborcza, Frontstory.pl (Poland)
• Deník Referendum (Czech Republic) 
• EUrologus/HVG (Hungary)
• PressOne (Romania)
• Journalism++ (Sweden)

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- 3 more teams contributed data: Noteworthy (Ireland), Investigace (Czech Republic), Atlatszo (Hungary).

The Undeclared War On Women in Europe

Main questions:

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• Was there a “femicide epidemic” during the pandemic in Europe? Has there been a real increase in the number of women murdered in recent years by current or former male partners or family members in Europe?

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• Is this development consistent with a wider increase in gender-based violence, particularly domestic violence, during the pandemic period?

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• Which countries are having the most difficulty in curbing violence against women?

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• What are countries doing in terms of prevention, especially of intimate partner violence?

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• Is there a connection between the criminal treatment of perpetrators and the state of violence against women?

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• Is there a connection between the rise in violence against women and the state of gender equality in European countries?

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• Should femicide be recognised as a crime in its own right?

The Undeclared War On Women in Europe

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Why the Data Approach:

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- Femicides are usually covered in the news in a very "sensational" way - often presented as "crimes of passion”.

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- The audience loses sight of the rate at which femicides occur and the need to look at the reasons behind the phenomenon. 

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- Numbers don't lie. Well, at least when the crimes are not under-reported… 

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Our goal:

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• Collect data from as many European countries as possible.

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• Create a more realistic map of the state of violence against women in Europe during the pandemic.

The Undeclared War On Women in Europe

Major obstacle: lack of data on EU and national level

• In March 2022 the European Commission proposed a new directive on combatting violence against women and domestic violence, which would make relevant data collection compulsory throughout the EU. Has still not been adopted.

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• Main data source: The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) had last published a report with data on femicides and violence against women (physical, sexual, economic, psychological) in 2021 BUT with data covering the period 2014-2018.

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• EIGE launched a relevant survey in 2020, but the results are not expected to be published before 2024.

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• Existing gap of more than 5 years without updated information on the issue.

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• Eurostat had useful data on intentional homicides of women by intimate partners or family members (the closest crime interpretation to femicides) BUT mostly reaching until 2020.

The Undeclared War On Women in Europe

Major obstacle: lack of data on EU and national level

• EDJNet teams collectively discovered significant gaps in the publishing of recent data by state actors.

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• Many countries were not offering this data publicly > needed to make official requests to relevant authorities + FOI requests.

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• Lack of data with similar, and thus comparable characteristics among European countries due to different laws and interpretations of crimes related to violence against women.

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• EIGE: “No score is given to the EU in the domain of violence, due to a lack of comparable EU-wide data”.

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• Under-reporting by national authorities of femicides and cases of violence against women.

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• Data collection also from unofficial sources, like private monitoring initiatives, in an effort to compare them to official annual figures. (ie In the case of Greece the number of femicides recorded by the Greek section of the European Observatory on Femicides was 2,4 times higher than police figures for 2020, and 1,4 higher than figures for 2021).

The Undeclared War On Women in Europe

The human factor

• Need to remember that all numbers equal cases of violent treatment of women.

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• Interviews with families of victims of femicides.

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• Interviews with female survivors of intimate partner violence.

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• Interviews with experts necessary to navigate through the difficult legal, criminal context, but also to bring wider perspective to the challenges women face.

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• Interviews with representatives of relevant EU/national authorities regarding policy-making.

The Undeclared War On Women in Europe

Main findings

• Main challenge - “headache”: Data input and analysis.

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• Following the contribution of new data, on the basis of the first data source, EIGE, the total number of femicides from 2010 to 2021 in the 20 countries providing data is estimated at 3232  (although no data could be added in this case for 8 countries: Poland, Bulgaria, Denmark, Luxembourg, Belgium, Portugal, Ireland, Ireland, Romania).

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• Eurostat data for the same period shows 6593 intentional homicides of women in Europe between 2011-2021, including 4208 by partners and 2385 by relatives.

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• The above figures are a sign of serious indications of underreporting by the police authorities.

The Undeclared War On Women in Europe

Main findings

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• After the input of data from participating teams, our findings confirmed a similar pattern between EIGE & Eurostat data.

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• EIGE & EDJNet data collection: Greece had the highest increase in femicides in 2021 with an increase of 187.5%.
• Comparing the two-year pandemic with 2019 shows that Greece, Slovenia, Germany and Italy saw a significant increase in femicides.

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• Eurostat data: Similar increase of 156% in 2021 compared to 2020 confirmed for Greece.
• Slovenia also appeared to have a 100% increase in the first year of the pandemic in intentional homicides of women by intimate partners and relatives.

The Undeclared War On Women in Europe

Main findings

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• Confirmation of increase of violence against women during the pandemic

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• In Greece, the pandemic period was marked by a frightening 110.2% increase in victims of physical violence in 2020 and 90.4% in 2021.

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• Greece, Serbia and Slovenia showed significant increases in sexual violence the years of the pandemic.

The Undeclared War On Women in Europe

Main findings

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• Increase in psychological violence against women during the pandemic

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• According to EIGE, at least 44% of women in Europe have been subjected to psychological violence at some point by a partner.

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• In Greece in particular, the widened use of the internet and the increase in online abuse, led to an 84.1% rise in victims of psychological violence.

The Undeclared War On Women in Europe

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Thank you for your patience!

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contacts:

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miir.gr

europeandatajournalism.eu

lab.imedd.org

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email: jlou@miir.gr - louloudi.janine@gmail.com

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twitter: @GrMiir - @janinel83