Women Condemn the 'Changwon Female Murder Case'... Is There No Plan to Eradicate 'Femicide'?

Suspect in 'Changwon Woman Murder Case' States Crime Committed Due to Cold Treatment
Women's Groups Condemn as Misogynistic Crime Targeting Female Victim
Experts Call for Urgent Legislation to Prevent Hate and Discriminatory Speech

On March 9th, during the French Women's Day protest, demonstrators held signs bearing the names of women who were victims of femicide. Photo by AP Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Ga-yeon] Recently, in Changwon, Gyeongnam, a man dissatisfied with restaurant service wielded a weapon and killed a female business owner in her 60s. Amid ongoing violent crimes against women, women's organizations have called for measures to eradicate such misogynistic murders, known as 'femicide.'

Femicide is a compound word of 'Female' and 'Homicide,' first introduced by Diana Russell, a professor at Mills College in the United States, at the International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women in 1976.

In her 1992 book of the same name, Professor Russell defined it as "originating from historically unequal power relations between men and women. It is a misogynistic killing committed by men motivated by hatred, contempt, pleasure, or possessiveness toward women."

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines femicide as "cases where women are killed by their romantic partners, cohabitants, or spouses because they are women." However, the concept has recently expanded to include crimes where the victim being female is a motive or reason for the crime.

According to the Changwon Jungbu Police Station in Gyeongnam on the 4th, A (43) was urgently arrested on suspicion of killing B (60), the owner of a meat restaurant, in an apartment complex in Uichang-gu that morning. The police reported that A stated he was "treated coldly and discriminated against differently from other customers, as the meat was not grilled for him." The police are investigating the detailed circumstances, believing A waited at the apartment where B lived before committing the crime.

Women's groups stated, "If the victim had been male, this crime would not have occurred," defining it as femicide and urging the establishment of countermeasures and strict punishment for the perpetrator.

Gyeongsang-do unmarried community WITH and Jeolla-do unmarried community ViSion issued a 'Femicide Memorial and Solidarity Statement' on the same day, saying, "Seeing the perpetrator's statement, which is not worth a moment's consideration, brings to mind countless women who have been killed for similar reasons," and urged, "Please pay attention until the perpetrator receives punishment commensurate with his crime."

Additionally, women continue criticism through SNS hashtag campaigns such as '#ChangwonWomenMurderCase' and '#WomenAreKilledBecauseTheyAreWomen.'

Statement condemning the Changwon women murder case announced on the 4th by Gyeongsangdo Non-Marriage Community WITH and Jeollado Non-Marriage Community ViSion / Photo by Gyeongsangdo Non-Marriage Community WITH Twitter capture

Crimes involving the murder of women occur every year. According to an analysis of police crime statistics by Korea Women's Hotline in 2017, from 2011 to 2015, 2,039 women were victims of murder or attempted murder. The numbers of women killed and those who escaped murder threats were 1,002 and 1,037, respectively.

The problem lies in the continued insufficiency of statistics related to misogynistic crime victims and the establishment of preventive measures.

At a seminar on improving statistics on violence against women hosted by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and Statistics Korea in May last year, Professor Lee Soo-jung of Kyonggi University stated, "While our country focuses on what crimes the perpetrator committed, overseas attention is on what harm the victim suffered," adding, "We need to review useful international crime data abroad and actively seek ways to apply them to our domestic criminal justice system."

Currently, femicide is registered as a criminal term in the legislation of 16 countries overseas, including Peru, Argentina, and Colombia. The French government also established a comprehensive femicide countermeasure last year. French President Emmanuel Macron officially mentioned it following a large-scale anti-femicide protest in November of the same year.

Experts have suggested that related laws should be enacted to prevent and educate about crimes based on discrimination and hatred.

Former National Sexual Violence Counseling Center Director Bae Bok-joo analyzed, "The fact that misogyny motivates murder is a problem in our society," adding, "Such hatred arises from our society's sexist culture, the objectification of women, and the perception that women exist in a lower position."

Bae emphasized, "Because women are in a lower position, when this position is reversed or male vested interests are infringed upon, men feel reverse discrimination," and stated, "To eradicate misogynistic crimes, broadly, education is needed to change the overall sexist culture and structure of our society, and specifically, related laws that provide grounds to prevent such crimes must be enacted."

She continued, "Laws like the Anti-Discrimination Act are necessary to sanction discrimination or violence based on sex and gender," and explained, "Preventive and educational legislation should be enacted to sanction speech or expressions that promote hatred."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.