Writing a piece to accompany the release of the first Femicide Census report (2009-2015), co-founder Karen Ingala Smith explores how the Femicide Census statistics show us that leaving a violent man is not a straightforward way to escape his danger as at least a third of women killed by a partner or ex-partner were killed after leaving him and of these, approximately three-quarters were killed in the first year.
She outlines how one of the most important things about the Femicide Census is that it looks beyond intimate partner violence, for example to women killed through involvement in prostitution. She addresses the need for a huge shift in norms such as socially constructed gender and the objectification of women that are needed to reduce men’s violence against women.