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Femicide in Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot communities in Cyprus: A pilot study
Women's Studies International Forum 77 (2019) 102294
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Femicide in Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot communities in Cyprus: A pilot study
T
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Christiana Koutaa, , Elina Kofoua, Akile Zorbab a b
Department of Nursing, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus Middlesex University, United Kingdom
A R T I C LE I N FO
A B S T R A C T
Keywords: Femicide Greek-Cypriot Turkish-Cypriot Bi-communal
Purpose: The aim of this article is to discuss a pilot study on femicide in Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot communities in Cyprus. Methods: A quantitative methodology was used to gather data from the police between 2010 and 2016 for the Greek-Cypriot community on women and girls who have been killed and where the perpetrator charged, alleged or convicted is a man. Also, qualitative methodology was used, gathering media reports for both communities between 2010 and 2017. Results: Twenty-eight and twelve femicide cases were identified in the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities respectively. Most of the victims were killed by their husbands or boyfriends often at their home. It seems that masculine viewpoint was dominant in the media representations of these cases. Conclusions: Femicide prevention is in its early stages in Cyprus. It seems that a preventative and interventional strategy is needed to reduce the number of women killed by men.
Introduction Femicide has been overlooked, for many years, as a case of crime and act of killing (Corradi, Marcuello-Servos, Boira, & Weil, 2016). Women killings have also been commonly attributed to the different factors such as education and socioeconomic status and to the deviance from cultural norms (Sosa, 2017). The outbreak of violence against women in the public sphere began in the '80s when women had the opportunity to question their social position and violence towards and murders of women in the agenda of politics and the media (Hall, 2015). The female images, which are indicative of the dominant masculine societies, became the central concern of feminist communication and media studies (Kim, 2008; Triece, 1999; Wood, 1994). These studies report that rather than reflecting the social reality, media strengthens the patriarchal gender regime. The main emphasis in the feminist and critical media studies is that women's image is represented in terms of sexuality. Media seems to reproduce social prejudices through news and comments, reinforces traditional woman's image by either ignoring women or not fully reflecting them (Shor, Van de Rijt, Miltsov, Kulkarni, & Skiena, 2015; Wood, 1994). Sultana (2012), argued that the media is seen as one of the basic means of male-dominated social control, and it is underrepresenting or completely ignoring different feminine situations and ⁎
lives. Further, woman is squeezed into patriarchal roles, often shown in connection with the house and that the woman's identity is established with spouses and children. Similarly, news of domestic violence also trivialize, negate, ignore, victimize or blame women (Braber, 2015). The term femicide was introduced in the last century to describe killings of women that were gender related to the impact of inequality and discrimination; identified internationally as a root of violence towards women (Council of Europe, 2011). Femicide is generally defined as the killing of women because they are women, but broader definitions include any killings of women or girls (World Health Organization (WHO), 2012). Gender-related killings are not isolated incidents, which arise suddenly and unexpectedly, but are rather the ultimate act of violence that is experienced in a continuum of violence (United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), 2016). It has been described by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women (UN SRVAW) as constituting “the most extreme form of violence against women and the most violent manifestation of discrimination against women and their inequality” (UNGA, 2016:10). Femicide differs from male homicide in specific ways. For example, most cases of femicide are committed by partners or ex-partners and involve ongoing abuse, threats or intimidation, sexual violence or situations where women have less power or fewer resources than their partners (WHO, 2012). Femicide is the fatal outcome of intimate partner violence, that not only takes away
Corresponding author at: 15, Vragadinou street, 3041 Limassol, Cyprus. E-mail address: [email protected] (C. Kouta).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2019.102294 Received 29 April 2019; Received in revised form 2 August 2019; Accepted 21 September 2019 Available online 02 November 2019 0277-5395/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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the life of the victim but also often has detrimental effects on the health and safety of the victim's family or those affected (e.g. children, relatives, innocent bystanders) (Dobash & Dobash, 2012; Lewandowski, McFarlane, Campbell, Gary, & Barenski, 2004). The World Health Organization (2012) underlined the difficulty and challenge in collecting correct data on femicide as in many countries police and health related data-collection systems often do not have the necessary information or do not report the victim-perpetrator relationship or their motives for the homicide. The institutional providers use different criteria and the information is often insufficient (Kouta, Rousou, Freysteinsdottir, Boira, & Naudi, 2017). This is mainly what is happening in Cyprus as well. In Cyprus, there is no legal definition for femicide. The murder of a woman or a girl by a family member is recognized by law and it is only in relation to family violence, which is not gender-specific: “Violence in the Family Law” under section 3 of the Violence in the Family (Prevention and Protection of Victims) Laws 119(I)/2000 and 212(I)/ 2004 refers to: any act, of omission or behavior which causes physical, sexual or mental injury to any member of the family and includes violence used for the purpose of having sexual intercourse without the consent of the victim as well as of restricting its freedom (Kouta, Boira, Nudelman, & Gill, 2018). When a woman or a girl is murdered by a family member, it is defined by law as ‘violence in the family’ without distinguishing between female and male perpetrators. Homicides that take place outside the family as a result of gender-based violence (e.g. by a boyfriend, ex-husband) are not considered as violence against women or gender-based violence. Analysis of the data in Cyprus demonstrates that the majority of these cases could be categorized as gender-based violence and acts of femicide (Kouta et al., 2018). In Cyprus, there are no forums and only limited literature exists related to the issue of Femicide. However, in the Greek-Cypriot community there are few organizations dealing with family violence, but these organizations are not gender specific. The aim of this manuscript is to discuss a bi-communal pilot study investigating femicide cases in Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot communities in Cyprus. The main objective is to present the available data on femicide, compare findings between the two communities and discuss the possible preventative measures which could be implemented in order to tackle this phenomenon. The study was supported by the “Stelios Bi-communal Awards Cyprus” of the “Stelios Philanthropic Foundation”, as to study and compare these two communities in the specific topic in Cyprus.
publicly available) for the period between 2010 and 2016. The media articles for the Greek-Cypriot cases were collected by the media archive of the Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies (2018) for the period between 2010 and 2017. This is not an open public source, but available to researchers and authorities. The analysis of the articles was based on the main newspapers of the two communities. The main Greek-Cypriot newspapers included were the following: Politis, Simerini/Sigmalive, Phileleftheros, Kathimerini, Alithia, Cyprus News Agency (CNA). Turkish-Cypriot data collection was based only on the representations and placements of the murders of women in the media from 2010 to 2017, as it was not possible to collect data from the ‘police’ or elsewhere. It is noted that such incidents are reported as being the murder cases and not as femicides. The main Turkish-Cypriot newspapers that are also available online included: Kıbrıs, Kıbrıs Postası, Havadis, Star Kıbrıs and Yeni Düzen. Another inclusion criterion was that, only cases where the victim or perpetrator or both were GreekCypriot or Turkish-Cypriot included in the study. Regarding the chronological dates of the data, authors initially aimed to collect data over the period of a decade; however, this was not possible, due to unavailability of complete data. Basic descriptive analysis was done. Percentages were used depicted in graphical representations and for the analysis of the media data, content analysis was used. Meaning systematically evaluating the media articles in this case, identifying commonalities and emerging themes. The following themes emerged from the analysis: ‘divorce’, ‘insanity’, ‘jealousy/unrequited love/passion crime’, ‘killing/murder’, ‘argument’, ‘the G3 gun possession’, often in combination.
Methodology
Findings presented are between the years of 2010–2016. A total of 28 femicides were committed in the Greek-Cypriot community (as reported by the police and main newspapers) and 12 femicides in the Turkish-Cypriot community (as presented by the main newspapers).
Ethical considerations Formal data was requested from the police for the Greek-Cypriot community. No personal information was revealed, anonymity and confidentiality were applied. Data information that was provided to authors did not include at any stage name of the victim or the perpetrator or any other personal information. This study used only secondary anonymous data and there was no participant involvement, thus no ethical clearance was required. Results Phase 1: quantitative data
In the first phase of the study, a quantitative methodology was used to gather data from the police on women and girls who have been killed and where the perpetrator charged, alleged or convicted is a male living in the Greek-Cypriot community. This phase covered the period between 2010 and 2016. Several variables have been examined and analysed: victims' age and nationality, perpetrators' age and nationality, relationship of perpetrator to victim, method of killing, location of incident, context of the relationship with the perpetrator and the perpetrator conviction. Obtaining such information was not possible from the Turkish-Cypriot community, as no available data exist to this date. The second phase of the study adopted a qualitative methodology to gather media reports on cases of women killed during the period between 2010 and 2017 in both Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot communities in Cyprus. For the purpose of this study, authors adopt WHO's definition of femicide; however only intimate partner femicide cases are included and not any other form of femicide.
Victims' age In both communities most common age range seems to be between 26 and 45 years old. Specifically, in the Greek-Cypriot community, 11% (n = 3) of femicide cases were below 17 years old, 4% of (n = 1) case were between 18 and 25 year old, 54% (n = 15) of femicide cases were 26–45-years old, 7% (n = 2) were between 46 and 55 years old, 14% (n = 4) were between 56 and 65 years old and 10% (n = 3) of femicide cases were between 76 and 85 years old. In the Turkish-Cypriot community 8% (n = 1) of femicide cases the victim was 18–25 years old, 68% (n = 8) 26–45 years old, 8% (n = 1) 46–55 and 16% (n = 2) of femicide cases the victims were 56–65 years old. Victim's nationality Results indicated that 44% (n = 13) of the femicide victims in the Greek-Cypriot community were Greek-Cypriots, 11% (n = 3) from Moldavia, 11% (n = 3) from Romania, 7% (n = 2) from Bulgaria, 7% (n = 2) from Sri-Lanka, 4% (n = 1) from Latvia, 4% (n = 1) from
Data collection and data analysis Greek-Cypriot data based on data/information collected by the Police of the Republic of Cyprus and is available only upon request (not 2
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Court decisions The spectrum of perpetrators conviction in the Greek-Cypriot community is wide and extends from 2 years to life sentence. Six perpetrators 19% (n = 6) have been convicted from 16 to 20 years imprisonment and 15% (n = 5) from 6 to10 years and to a life sentence. Further, 12% (n = 4) of the perpetrators committed suicide after the crime, 6% (n = 2) have been convicted to 11–15 years and 3% (n = 1) between to 2–5 years. In 30% (n = 10) of the cases the perpetrator was not charged yet or the conviction is pending or was not clarified in the collected data. There is no available data for the Turkish-Cypriot community regarding perpetrators conviction.
Philippines, 4% (n = 1) from Russia, 4% (n = 1) from Greece and 4% (n = 1) of the victims remains from unknown country of origin. Results indicated that 42% (n = 5) of femicide victims in the Turkish-Cypriot Community are Turkish-Cypriots, 33% (n = 4) of the victims were from Turkey, 8% (n = 1) from Turkmenistan, 8% (n = 1) from Morocco, and 8% (n = 1) of the victim was from Russia. Perpetrators' age and nationality Findings showed that in the Greek-Cypriot community the majority of perpetrators (64%) were between 26 and 45 years old {37% (n = 12) between 26 and 35 and 27% (n = 9) between 36 and 45 of age}, 6% (n = 2) of the perpetrators were 46–55 years old, 9% (n = 3) were 56–65 years old, 3% (n = 1) was 66 = 75 years old and 6% (n = 2) were 76–85 years old and 12% (n = 4) of the perpetrators no age was reported. The nationality of most of perpetrators were Greek-Cypriots 52% (n = 17), 9% (n = 3) were from Romania and Bulgaria respectively, 6% (n = 2) were from Albania, 3% (n = 1) were from other countries (such as Philippines, Serbia, Russia, Greece) and 12% (n = 4) no country of origin was reported. There is no available data for the perpetrators' age and nationality for the Turkish-Cypriot community.
Phase 2: qualitative data Media representations In this study, the representations and placements of the murders of women in the media in Cyprus for the period of 2010–2017 were investigated. A total of 153 articles from Greek-Cypriot newspapers were viewed for cases that took place in the Republic of Cyprus and 17 articles from the Turkish-Cypriot newspapers that took place in the occupied area were retrieved. A cross check was done by date and other details among newspapers and police data as to rule out double reporting. Overall 28 femicide cases based on media reports in the GreekCypriot community and 12 cases of femicides in the Turkish-Cypriot community were found. There are similarities between the GreekCypriot and Turkish-Cypriot newspapers regarding the presentation or coverage of the femicide or the murder cases of a woman. The following main themes emerged as a result of the analysis; ‘victim blaming’, ‘the G3 gun possession’, ‘the use of sexist language’.
Relationship of perpetrator with victim In the Greek-Cypriot community, 24% of the victims (n = 8) have been killed by their husbands, 24% (n = 8) of the victims have been killed by someone unknown to them, 20% (n = 7) by their boyfriends and 3% (n = 1) by their ex-husband and 12% (n = 4) of the cases the relationship between victim and perpetrator was not reported. In the Turkish-Cypriot community, 63% (n = 9) of the victims were killed by their husbands and 21% (n = 3) of the victims by their ex-boyfriend.
Theme 1: victim blaming. Victim Blaming emerged as a first theme in this study. It refers to the emphasis put on the female victim's behaviour and wishes as a cause for femicide. In both Greek-Cypriot and TurkishCypriot communities several media reports had been identified which portrait women's desire particularly for a divorce or a break up as a reason for argument and discussion among the couple consequently, as a justification for femicide. For example, the case of A.S.'s femicide in 2013 in Turkish-Cypriot community was represented in the media with a news titled ‘Asked for a divorce and got killed- in Kıbrıs Postası’ it was also reported that the killer husband also threatened to kill the family before he shot himself by saying ‘I killed her and I will kill you all as well’. In the Greek-Cypriot community in 2015 the case of a woman who was killed by her husband at her workplace after she asked for a divorced because she fall in love with another man and was represented in the media with the title: ‘She fall in love with another man, she asked for a divorce from her husband and this led her to death’- in Cytoday (17/12/ 2015).
Context of the relationship with the perpetrator This category reports the context of motivation and violence and how this category is related to the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim. Most of the murders 75% (n = 21) in the Greek-Cypriot community are due to disagreements, fights and jealousy between the partners. Further, 25% (n = 7) of murder cases have not been examined or defined the reasons of killing. In the Turkish-Cypriot community 56% (n = 9) of the murders were found to be due to disagreements, fights and jealousy while for the 18% (n = 3) of the cases the reason remains unknown. Method of killing Among the 28 incidents of femicide committed between 2010 and 2016 in the Greek-Cypriot community, different methods of killing have been used. Mainly at 30% (n = 8) of the femicide cases the perpetrators used a gun to kill their victims, 18% (n = 5) used other instruments (e.g. laptop, stone), 18% (n = 6) used sharp instruments (such as knife), 11% (n = 4) exert physical violence on the victim, 7% (n = 2) cases used strangulation, 4% (n = 1) used poison, 4% (n = 1) used fire, 4% (n = 1) abandonment (in a case of an infant) and 4% (n = 1) no method was recorded. In the Turkish-Cypriot community 50% (n = 6) of the perpetrators used a gun as their main instrument of killing, 18% (n = 2) used a sharp instrument (knife mainly), 8% (n = 1) used poison, 8% (n = 1) used strangulation, 8% (n = 1) the victim jumped and 8% (n = 1) pushed off from the balcony.
Theme 2: ‘The G3 gun possession’. This theme refers to the attention given to the gun possession in the media as a cause of femicide. This was evident in the Greek-Cypriot media and specifically, there were too many media reportings on the law that gives the right to men of the G3 gun possession, consequently allowing easier access for men to kill their wives. This was evident in one of the cases, which happened in GreekCypriot community where a husband murdered his wife and daughter with the use of his G3 gun of the army at the 18th of June of 2014 – Fileleftheros (24/06/2014). And this gave the opportunity to media to focus their reporting on the issue of a gun possession and specifically some of the main newspapers had the following news titles: ‘They accused the G3 and the army’- Filelfetheros (20/06/2014), ‘Let's save at least one life…let's stop the right of gun possession’ – Simerini (20/6/ 2014), ‘Gun possession in the table’ – Alithia (03/09/2014).
Location of incident In the Greek-Cypriot community, 53% (n = 14) of women were killed in their homes while 25% (n = 7) of women were killed in public areas. In the Turkish-Cypriot community most women; 65% (n = 9) were killed in their own houses (where victims and perpetrators were living together). The rest incidents took place as follow: 7% (n = 1) in the victim's house, 7% (n = 1) in the victim's motherhouse, 14% (n = 2) in a public area and 7% (n = 1) in the victim's workplace.
Theme 3: ‘Use of a sexist language’. This theme refers to the sexist language used by media in order to blame women for what happened and excuses men from committing femicide. Particular use of a sexist 3
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masculine viewpoint was dominant in the media representations of the femicide cases. These media representations give credit to men who in turn are perceived as fulfilling their gender roles and expectations from them in a masculine society. Media's vital role on creating understandings or social constructs of crimes such as domestic violence or femicide for the members of the public who have little to no experience with violence cannot be denied (Pantaleo, 2010). Understanding the language used in media to portray femicide cases is, therefore, important. Similar to the findings of this study many early studies in this field also noted the dominance of sexist language in reportings of the femicide cases through media. For example, a content analysis of femicide cases in newspapers carried out by many researchers as Folingstad, Rutledge, McNeill-Hawkins, and Polek (1992) and Meyers (1997) showed that media generally portray the perpetrators as innocent beings for their actions. Title of the English articles analysed in these studies also clearly showed the sexist approach towards femicide cases; “Tragedy After Wife Left,” “Together Again in the Grave.” Similar to these, findings of this study also showed that the use of the Greek and Turkish languages in media is also sexist when reporting violence against women. Words that are sexual with a disdainful attitude are generally used to describe women while men are displayed as heroes; ‘Killed his wife to save his family's name’. Furthermore, in both communities it was found that media defined women in terms of their relationships to men, disregarding women as individuals. Such coverage of the femicide cases in Greek and Turkish-Cypriot media, therefore, continues to put an emphasis on patriarchal tendencies hinder the important context of femicide. Another finding that emerged was that most of the reporting had not given any information on the issue of violence against women, in order to increase public's sensitivity and ways to prevent such cases as well as the legal procedure to be followed. It can be argued that media emphasized cases will probably provide an increased publicity, mainly due to tragic and sensitive circumstances (such as killing of a child). Reporting's emphasize male violence, while sending women a threatening message about what might happen to them if they are to ask for a divorce. Also, by reporting the way women got killed and the weapons used to kill them normalises violence towards women as well as the femicide incidents. It also warns women who are not being the ideal wife/partner about how their death can be slow and painful. This shows the commonality of victim blaming among Greek and Turkish media when reporting the femicide cases. According to Berns (2004), victim blaming in media for the femicide case is a societal problem that needs to be addressed. In her study on domestic violence, she identified that in the 97% of the articles analysed, victim was shown as responsible for her killing. Frames and the way they are used in media are particularly important as they create meanings and/or interpretations in one's mind without much awareness. Thus blaming the victim for femicide systematically shifts the focus off the abuser and generally puts emphasis on the victim's behaviour or wishes. Similarly, to Berns' (2004) work, in this study intentional blaming of women for femicide cases were identified in both the Greek and Turkish media reportings. As reported in the findings section emphasis was put on women's behaviour or wishes; ‘Asked for a divorce and got killed and She fall in love with another man, she asked for a divorce from her husband and this led her to death.’ It could be argued that along with the Greek-Cypriot and TurkishCypriot media's use of a sexist language, blaming women for their killings create negative perceptions about women among the members of the public, consequently under-prioritising such cases and what can be done about the problem. Further to these, findings of this study showed the importance given to gun possession particularly in Greek-Cypriot media when reporting femicide cases. Similar to this gun possession as a risk factor for femicide had been well documented by much research world-wide such as Campbell et al. (2003), Abrahams, Jewkes, and Mathews (2010) and Adinkrah (2014). The fact that media had paid too much attention on gun possession; ‘They accused the G3 and the army’, ‘Let's save at least one
language in the Turkish-Cypriot media was evident. For example, in 2017 G.P.'s murder was reflected as ‘Honour Killing’ and ‘Did it to save his family's name’ in the media. In the Greek-Cypriot media femicides cases were also reflected in the same way; for example two different cases were represented as such ‘I didn't want to kill her’ Simerini title (05/01/2011) or in another case of a murder of a woman that happened on the 15/10/2016, another newspaper had given the following title: ‘Τhe offender conviction was too harsh for murdering his wife with toxic liquid’- Sigmalive (15/03/2017). Limitations Police and media reported data that are not aligned, meaning that some data received from the police were incomplete (e.g. relation of victim). However, in the media articles sometimes were given more details for some cases than from the police data. For the TurkishCypriot community ‘police’ data was not provided. For the purpose of this study only intimate partner cases were reported and limited information was provided to make appropriate comparisons among the Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot cases. However, authors believe that the data revealed are much useful for Cyprus and as this is a pilot study, it may form a base for more detailed research. Authors argue that femicide cases in both communities are much more than those reported, thus the data presented in this report are indicative to the problem. Discussion Findings showed that femicide exists in Cyprus with an important recorded number of cases in relation to the island's population in both communities (for the Republic of Cyprus Eurostat reports population of 854,802 in 2017). To date police data do not clearly report femicides as a violence against women, but rather they report it mainly as homicides. More emphasis is given on family violence as the national law states. Homicides that take place outside the family because of genderbased violence are not categorized as such, although data showed that indeed the majority of the cases could be categorized as gender-based violence. In a way, this is understandable as the law underlines family violence and culturally family in both communities mostly is assumed to be the nuclear type. Based on previous qualitative research study that was conducted by Kapardis, Baldry, and Konstantinou (2017) that contextualizes femicide in the broader context of domestic violence and homicide in the Republic of Cyprus for the Greek-Cypriot community, 63% of female homicide victims were killed by someone they knew well and trusted. The findings of the current study showed that there are many similarities in femicide cases between the two communities, the GreekCypriot and Turkish-Cypriot. A comparison of the data reveals that femicide can affect women at any age. However, it seems that women are most likely to become the victims of femicide between the age of 26–45 in both communities. Similarly, even though perpetrator can be of any age, in the Greek-Cypriot community, perpetrators of femicide cases tend to be between 26 and 45 years old. Regarding the relationship between the victim and the perpetrator, results show that women in both communities are more likely to be killed by their husbands, boyfriends or ex-husbands or ex-boyfriends. Regarding the context of the relationship with the perpetrators data reveals that in both communities, most of the murders are due to disagreements, fights, jealousy but only a few of them have been reported as violence in the family. Most common method of killing used by the perpetrators in both communities was the use of gun and women were found to be more likely to be killed at their homes and this is aligned with the gender-based violence incidences (UK Official National Statistics, 2018). Media reportings in both communities have approached the representations of the femicide cases in the same way since they share a common sexist approach to present such cases. Results showed that the 4
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justice done (Brennan, 2017). Employers need to ensure that they have appropriate policies and procedures to support and protect their employees and to provide training and guidance to their staff (Brennan, 2017). Moreover, reports on the incidence and consequences of femicide need to be developed, disseminated, and publicized for awareness raising and advocacy causes around femicide and this can be accomplished with the reinforcement of the overall data collection. Femicide is the ultimate act of gender-based violence. Interdisciplinary immediate actions are vital, particularly to communities that due to cultural, social and other factors this is much evident.
life…let's stop the right of gun possession’, instead of violence against women, had, however, managed to disorient the community. This also gives false messages and to once again that violence is accepted. A 2007 study carried out by Kates and Mauser also known as the Harvard Study showed no consistent differences in violent homicide rates between countries that have strict handgun possession policy and those who do not. For example, in their review they reported that in Luxembourg, where handguns are banned and the ownership of such weapons is minimal, the murder rates are 10 times higher than in other European countries as Norway and Germany where gun ownership is legal and high. Similar situation could be observed in Canada as well where handguns had been banned since 1934. Despite this strict approach no difference is observed in violent homicide cases between Canada and America where gun possession is legal. It could, therefore, be argued that other means are found by the members of the public for violent act as femicide in the absence of guns. Considering the fact that media's role is to inform and to protect and empower the public about their rights as well as to increase awareness, it could be argued that media reporting on femicide in Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities seem to be not adequate. Although gun possession could be a risk factor, intention of assaulting or killing seems to carry greater importance. Thus, both Greek and Turkish Cypriot media should focus on one's intention on assaulting or killing another person.
Acknowledgements This study has been awarded by the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation. Authors greatly thank the Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou and the Foundation for their support and effort in promoting bicommunal actions and research. References Abrahams, N., Jewkes, R., & Mathews, S. (2010). Guns and gender-based violence in South Africa. SAMJ: South African Medical Journal, 100(9), 586–588. Adinkrah, M. (2014). Intimate partner femicide–suicides in Ghana: Victims, offenders, and incident characteristics. Violence Against Women, 20(9), 1078–1096. Berkeley Media Studies Group (2009). Moving from them to us: Challenges in reframing violence among youth. Berkeley Media Studies Grouphttp://www.bmsg.org/ resources/publications/moving-from-them-to-us-challenges-in-reframing-violenceamong-youth/. Berns, N. (2004). Framing the victim: Domestic violence, media and social problems. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter. Braber, N. (2015). Representation of domestic violence in two British newspapers, the guardian and the sun, 2009–2011. English Language Research Journal, 1, 86–104. Brennan, D. (2017). The femicide census: 2016 findings. Annual report on cases of femicide in 2016. Available at https://1q7dqy2unor827bqjls0c4rn-wpengine.netdnassl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/The-Femicide-Census-Report-published2017.pdf, Accessed date: 20 February 2019. Campbell, J. C., Webster, D., Koziol-McLain, J., Block, C., Campbell, D., Curry, M. A., & Laughon, K. (2003). Risk factors for femicide in abusive relationships: Results from a multisite case control study. American Journal of Public Health, 93(7), 1089–1097. Corradi, C., Marcuello-Servos, C., Boira, S., & Weil, S. (2016). Theories of femicide and their significance for social research. Current Sociology, 64(7), 975–995. Council of Europe (2011). Council of Europe convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. Preamble and article 3. Available at https://rm.coe.int/168008482e, Accessed date: 24 August 2018. Dobash, R. P., & Dobash, R. E. (2012). Who died? The murder of collaterals related to intimate partner conflict. Violence Against Women, 18, 662–671. Folingstad, D. R., Rutledge, L. L., McNeill-Hawkins, K., & Polek, D. S. (1992). Factors related to physical violence in dating relationships. Intimate violence: Interdisciplinary perspectives (pp. 121–135). . Hall, R. J. (2015). Feminist strategies to end violence against women. In R. Baksh, & W. Hancourt (Eds.). The Oxford handbook of transnational feminist movements (pp. 394– 415). USA: Oxford University Press. Available at http://eltalondeaquiles.pucp.edu. pe/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Oxford-Handbooks-Rawwida-Baksh-WendyHarcourt-The-Oxford-Handbook-of-Transnational-Feminist-Movements-OxfordUniversity-Press-2015.pdf, Accessed date: 25 August 2018. Kapardis, A., Baldry, C. A., & Konstantinou, M. (2017). A qualitative study of intimate partner femicide and orphans in Cyprus. Qualitative Sociology Review, XIII(3), 80–100. Kim, S. (2008). Feminist discourse and the hegemonic role of mass media: Newspaper discourse about two South Korean television dramas. Feminist Media Studies, 8(4), 391–406. Kouta, C., Boira, S., Nudelman, A., & Gill, A. K. (2018). Understanding and preventing femicide using a cultural and ecological approach. In Weil, (Ed.). Femicide across Europe (pp. 51–67). UK: Policy Press. Kouta, C., Rousou, E., Freysteinsdottir, F. J., Boira, S., & Naudi, M. (2017). Gender and socio-cultural perspectives through femicide case studies. Journal of Community Medicine and Health Care, 2(2), 1013. Available at http://austinpublishinggroup. com/community-medicine/fulltext/jcmhc-v2-id1013.php, Accessed date: 24 March 2019. Lewandowski, A. L., McFarlane, J., Campbell, C. J., Gary, F., & Barenski, C. (2004). He killed my mommy! Murder or attempted murder of a child’s mother. Journal of Family Violence, 19, 211–220. Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies (2018). Media coverage. Available at http:// www.medinstgenderstudies.org/category/press-room/, Accessed date: 20 January 2019. Meyers, M. (1997). News coverage of violence against women: Engendering blame (book review). Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 74(3), 652. Pantaleo, K. (2010). Gendered violence: An analysis of the maquiladora murders. International Criminal Justice Review, 20(4), 349–365. Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), InterCambios, Medical Research Council of South Africa (MRC), & WHO (2009). Strengthening understanding of
Conclusions and recommendations This study shows that femicide prevention is in its early stages in Cyprus. Both communities share a lot in common regarding femicide cases. It seems that a preventative and interventional strategy is needed to reduce the number of women killed by men. Considering the role of media on shaping the public's attitudes and perceptions as well as policies on violence cases as femicide (Berkeley Media Studies Group, 2009), looking into the media representations of such cases could be considered as a first step in understanding and changing the problem consequently public's attitudes. Further to this, a variety of measures need to be taken and related stakeholders need to be involved to combat this phenomenon. The UN SRVAW (United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women) has called on all governments to set up a Femicide Watch to collect data as a crucial tool for the development of effective strategies to address this serious human rights violation and for that data to be published annually (Brennan, 2017). There are several key recommendations that can be taken in consideration by the stakeholders involved in both communities to help combating this phenomenon. The government should take more radical measures to reduce violence against women. To provide hotlines, reporting systems, advocacy groups to prevent extreme violence and to have better cooperation with NGOs to guarantee of sustainable funding for specialized services (Kouta et al., 2017). It is also important to provide secure funding for systemic and continuous training of professionals on violence against women (Kouta et al., 2017) and more trainings in schools and in the community in general. In addition, national level data, national registries, or dedicated sections on femicide are needed in existing homicide databases. Further, the police should cooperate with academics and professionals to develop a strategic and supportive plan to deal with femicide cases in order to prevent future deaths (PATH, InterCambios, MRC and WHO, 2009) and to nominate a specific senior officer for each police force area responsible. Ssensitizing of media professionals through awareness raising and training are essential to strengthen skills in gender-sensitive, complete reporting on femicides. Further, it seems that is necessary to review the range of sentencing for femicide in order to identify the reasons for the significant variation in sentences (from 2 years to life sentenced for murder) and establish further guidance on the trial and sentencing of femicide cases to ensure all perpetrators are equally held accounted and victims' families can see 5
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UK Official National Statistics (2018). Homicide in England and Wales- year ending March 2017. Available at https://www.ons.gov.uk/, Accessed date: 24 August 2018. United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) (2016). Report of the special rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences. Available at http://ap.ohchr. org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?m=106, Accessed date: 1 October 2017. Wood, J. T. (1994). Gendered media: The influence of media on views of gender. In J. T. Wood (Ed.). Gendered lives: Communication, gender and culture (pp. 231–244). Wadsworth Publishing. World Health Organization, (WHO) (2012). Understanding and addressing violence against women. Geneva: WHO. Available at http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/ 77421/1/WHO_RHR_12.38_eng.pdf, Accessed date: 12 February 2019.
femicide. Washington DC. Available at https://path.azureedge.net/media/ documents/GVR_femicide_rpt.pdf, Accessed date: 30 July 2018. Shor, E., Van de Rijt, A., Miltsov, A., Kulkarni, V., & Skiena, S. (2015). A paper ceiling: Explaining the persistent underrepresentation of women in printed news. American Sociological Review, 80(5), 960–984. Sosa, L. P. (2017). Inter-American case law on femicide: Obscuring intersections? Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, 35(2), 85–103. Sultana, A. (2012). Patriarchy and women s subordination: A theoretical analysis. Arts Faculty Journal, 4, 1–18. Triece, M. E. (1999). The practical true woman: Reconciling women and work in popular mail-order magazines, 1900–1920. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 16(1), 42–62.
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Femicide in Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot communities in Cyprus: A pilot study
T
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Christiana Koutaa, , Elina Kofoua, Akile Zorbab a b
Department of Nursing, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus Middlesex University, United Kingdom
A R T I C LE I N FO
A B S T R A C T
Keywords: Femicide Greek-Cypriot Turkish-Cypriot Bi-communal
Purpose: The aim of this article is to discuss a pilot study on femicide in Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot communities in Cyprus. Methods: A quantitative methodology was used to gather data from the police between 2010 and 2016 for the Greek-Cypriot community on women and girls who have been killed and where the perpetrator charged, alleged or convicted is a man. Also, qualitative methodology was used, gathering media reports for both communities between 2010 and 2017. Results: Twenty-eight and twelve femicide cases were identified in the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities respectively. Most of the victims were killed by their husbands or boyfriends often at their home. It seems that masculine viewpoint was dominant in the media representations of these cases. Conclusions: Femicide prevention is in its early stages in Cyprus. It seems that a preventative and interventional strategy is needed to reduce the number of women killed by men.
Introduction Femicide has been overlooked, for many years, as a case of crime and act of killing (Corradi, Marcuello-Servos, Boira, & Weil, 2016). Women killings have also been commonly attributed to the different factors such as education and socioeconomic status and to the deviance from cultural norms (Sosa, 2017). The outbreak of violence against women in the public sphere began in the '80s when women had the opportunity to question their social position and violence towards and murders of women in the agenda of politics and the media (Hall, 2015). The female images, which are indicative of the dominant masculine societies, became the central concern of feminist communication and media studies (Kim, 2008; Triece, 1999; Wood, 1994). These studies report that rather than reflecting the social reality, media strengthens the patriarchal gender regime. The main emphasis in the feminist and critical media studies is that women's image is represented in terms of sexuality. Media seems to reproduce social prejudices through news and comments, reinforces traditional woman's image by either ignoring women or not fully reflecting them (Shor, Van de Rijt, Miltsov, Kulkarni, & Skiena, 2015; Wood, 1994). Sultana (2012), argued that the media is seen as one of the basic means of male-dominated social control, and it is underrepresenting or completely ignoring different feminine situations and ⁎
lives. Further, woman is squeezed into patriarchal roles, often shown in connection with the house and that the woman's identity is established with spouses and children. Similarly, news of domestic violence also trivialize, negate, ignore, victimize or blame women (Braber, 2015). The term femicide was introduced in the last century to describe killings of women that were gender related to the impact of inequality and discrimination; identified internationally as a root of violence towards women (Council of Europe, 2011). Femicide is generally defined as the killing of women because they are women, but broader definitions include any killings of women or girls (World Health Organization (WHO), 2012). Gender-related killings are not isolated incidents, which arise suddenly and unexpectedly, but are rather the ultimate act of violence that is experienced in a continuum of violence (United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), 2016). It has been described by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women (UN SRVAW) as constituting “the most extreme form of violence against women and the most violent manifestation of discrimination against women and their inequality” (UNGA, 2016:10). Femicide differs from male homicide in specific ways. For example, most cases of femicide are committed by partners or ex-partners and involve ongoing abuse, threats or intimidation, sexual violence or situations where women have less power or fewer resources than their partners (WHO, 2012). Femicide is the fatal outcome of intimate partner violence, that not only takes away
Corresponding author at: 15, Vragadinou street, 3041 Limassol, Cyprus. E-mail address: [email protected] (C. Kouta).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2019.102294 Received 29 April 2019; Received in revised form 2 August 2019; Accepted 21 September 2019 Available online 02 November 2019 0277-5395/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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the life of the victim but also often has detrimental effects on the health and safety of the victim's family or those affected (e.g. children, relatives, innocent bystanders) (Dobash & Dobash, 2012; Lewandowski, McFarlane, Campbell, Gary, & Barenski, 2004). The World Health Organization (2012) underlined the difficulty and challenge in collecting correct data on femicide as in many countries police and health related data-collection systems often do not have the necessary information or do not report the victim-perpetrator relationship or their motives for the homicide. The institutional providers use different criteria and the information is often insufficient (Kouta, Rousou, Freysteinsdottir, Boira, & Naudi, 2017). This is mainly what is happening in Cyprus as well. In Cyprus, there is no legal definition for femicide. The murder of a woman or a girl by a family member is recognized by law and it is only in relation to family violence, which is not gender-specific: “Violence in the Family Law” under section 3 of the Violence in the Family (Prevention and Protection of Victims) Laws 119(I)/2000 and 212(I)/ 2004 refers to: any act, of omission or behavior which causes physical, sexual or mental injury to any member of the family and includes violence used for the purpose of having sexual intercourse without the consent of the victim as well as of restricting its freedom (Kouta, Boira, Nudelman, & Gill, 2018). When a woman or a girl is murdered by a family member, it is defined by law as ‘violence in the family’ without distinguishing between female and male perpetrators. Homicides that take place outside the family as a result of gender-based violence (e.g. by a boyfriend, ex-husband) are not considered as violence against women or gender-based violence. Analysis of the data in Cyprus demonstrates that the majority of these cases could be categorized as gender-based violence and acts of femicide (Kouta et al., 2018). In Cyprus, there are no forums and only limited literature exists related to the issue of Femicide. However, in the Greek-Cypriot community there are few organizations dealing with family violence, but these organizations are not gender specific. The aim of this manuscript is to discuss a bi-communal pilot study investigating femicide cases in Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot communities in Cyprus. The main objective is to present the available data on femicide, compare findings between the two communities and discuss the possible preventative measures which could be implemented in order to tackle this phenomenon. The study was supported by the “Stelios Bi-communal Awards Cyprus” of the “Stelios Philanthropic Foundation”, as to study and compare these two communities in the specific topic in Cyprus.
publicly available) for the period between 2010 and 2016. The media articles for the Greek-Cypriot cases were collected by the media archive of the Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies (2018) for the period between 2010 and 2017. This is not an open public source, but available to researchers and authorities. The analysis of the articles was based on the main newspapers of the two communities. The main Greek-Cypriot newspapers included were the following: Politis, Simerini/Sigmalive, Phileleftheros, Kathimerini, Alithia, Cyprus News Agency (CNA). Turkish-Cypriot data collection was based only on the representations and placements of the murders of women in the media from 2010 to 2017, as it was not possible to collect data from the ‘police’ or elsewhere. It is noted that such incidents are reported as being the murder cases and not as femicides. The main Turkish-Cypriot newspapers that are also available online included: Kıbrıs, Kıbrıs Postası, Havadis, Star Kıbrıs and Yeni Düzen. Another inclusion criterion was that, only cases where the victim or perpetrator or both were GreekCypriot or Turkish-Cypriot included in the study. Regarding the chronological dates of the data, authors initially aimed to collect data over the period of a decade; however, this was not possible, due to unavailability of complete data. Basic descriptive analysis was done. Percentages were used depicted in graphical representations and for the analysis of the media data, content analysis was used. Meaning systematically evaluating the media articles in this case, identifying commonalities and emerging themes. The following themes emerged from the analysis: ‘divorce’, ‘insanity’, ‘jealousy/unrequited love/passion crime’, ‘killing/murder’, ‘argument’, ‘the G3 gun possession’, often in combination.
Methodology
Findings presented are between the years of 2010–2016. A total of 28 femicides were committed in the Greek-Cypriot community (as reported by the police and main newspapers) and 12 femicides in the Turkish-Cypriot community (as presented by the main newspapers).
Ethical considerations Formal data was requested from the police for the Greek-Cypriot community. No personal information was revealed, anonymity and confidentiality were applied. Data information that was provided to authors did not include at any stage name of the victim or the perpetrator or any other personal information. This study used only secondary anonymous data and there was no participant involvement, thus no ethical clearance was required. Results Phase 1: quantitative data
In the first phase of the study, a quantitative methodology was used to gather data from the police on women and girls who have been killed and where the perpetrator charged, alleged or convicted is a male living in the Greek-Cypriot community. This phase covered the period between 2010 and 2016. Several variables have been examined and analysed: victims' age and nationality, perpetrators' age and nationality, relationship of perpetrator to victim, method of killing, location of incident, context of the relationship with the perpetrator and the perpetrator conviction. Obtaining such information was not possible from the Turkish-Cypriot community, as no available data exist to this date. The second phase of the study adopted a qualitative methodology to gather media reports on cases of women killed during the period between 2010 and 2017 in both Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot communities in Cyprus. For the purpose of this study, authors adopt WHO's definition of femicide; however only intimate partner femicide cases are included and not any other form of femicide.
Victims' age In both communities most common age range seems to be between 26 and 45 years old. Specifically, in the Greek-Cypriot community, 11% (n = 3) of femicide cases were below 17 years old, 4% of (n = 1) case were between 18 and 25 year old, 54% (n = 15) of femicide cases were 26–45-years old, 7% (n = 2) were between 46 and 55 years old, 14% (n = 4) were between 56 and 65 years old and 10% (n = 3) of femicide cases were between 76 and 85 years old. In the Turkish-Cypriot community 8% (n = 1) of femicide cases the victim was 18–25 years old, 68% (n = 8) 26–45 years old, 8% (n = 1) 46–55 and 16% (n = 2) of femicide cases the victims were 56–65 years old. Victim's nationality Results indicated that 44% (n = 13) of the femicide victims in the Greek-Cypriot community were Greek-Cypriots, 11% (n = 3) from Moldavia, 11% (n = 3) from Romania, 7% (n = 2) from Bulgaria, 7% (n = 2) from Sri-Lanka, 4% (n = 1) from Latvia, 4% (n = 1) from
Data collection and data analysis Greek-Cypriot data based on data/information collected by the Police of the Republic of Cyprus and is available only upon request (not 2
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Court decisions The spectrum of perpetrators conviction in the Greek-Cypriot community is wide and extends from 2 years to life sentence. Six perpetrators 19% (n = 6) have been convicted from 16 to 20 years imprisonment and 15% (n = 5) from 6 to10 years and to a life sentence. Further, 12% (n = 4) of the perpetrators committed suicide after the crime, 6% (n = 2) have been convicted to 11–15 years and 3% (n = 1) between to 2–5 years. In 30% (n = 10) of the cases the perpetrator was not charged yet or the conviction is pending or was not clarified in the collected data. There is no available data for the Turkish-Cypriot community regarding perpetrators conviction.
Philippines, 4% (n = 1) from Russia, 4% (n = 1) from Greece and 4% (n = 1) of the victims remains from unknown country of origin. Results indicated that 42% (n = 5) of femicide victims in the Turkish-Cypriot Community are Turkish-Cypriots, 33% (n = 4) of the victims were from Turkey, 8% (n = 1) from Turkmenistan, 8% (n = 1) from Morocco, and 8% (n = 1) of the victim was from Russia. Perpetrators' age and nationality Findings showed that in the Greek-Cypriot community the majority of perpetrators (64%) were between 26 and 45 years old {37% (n = 12) between 26 and 35 and 27% (n = 9) between 36 and 45 of age}, 6% (n = 2) of the perpetrators were 46–55 years old, 9% (n = 3) were 56–65 years old, 3% (n = 1) was 66 = 75 years old and 6% (n = 2) were 76–85 years old and 12% (n = 4) of the perpetrators no age was reported. The nationality of most of perpetrators were Greek-Cypriots 52% (n = 17), 9% (n = 3) were from Romania and Bulgaria respectively, 6% (n = 2) were from Albania, 3% (n = 1) were from other countries (such as Philippines, Serbia, Russia, Greece) and 12% (n = 4) no country of origin was reported. There is no available data for the perpetrators' age and nationality for the Turkish-Cypriot community.
Phase 2: qualitative data Media representations In this study, the representations and placements of the murders of women in the media in Cyprus for the period of 2010–2017 were investigated. A total of 153 articles from Greek-Cypriot newspapers were viewed for cases that took place in the Republic of Cyprus and 17 articles from the Turkish-Cypriot newspapers that took place in the occupied area were retrieved. A cross check was done by date and other details among newspapers and police data as to rule out double reporting. Overall 28 femicide cases based on media reports in the GreekCypriot community and 12 cases of femicides in the Turkish-Cypriot community were found. There are similarities between the GreekCypriot and Turkish-Cypriot newspapers regarding the presentation or coverage of the femicide or the murder cases of a woman. The following main themes emerged as a result of the analysis; ‘victim blaming’, ‘the G3 gun possession’, ‘the use of sexist language’.
Relationship of perpetrator with victim In the Greek-Cypriot community, 24% of the victims (n = 8) have been killed by their husbands, 24% (n = 8) of the victims have been killed by someone unknown to them, 20% (n = 7) by their boyfriends and 3% (n = 1) by their ex-husband and 12% (n = 4) of the cases the relationship between victim and perpetrator was not reported. In the Turkish-Cypriot community, 63% (n = 9) of the victims were killed by their husbands and 21% (n = 3) of the victims by their ex-boyfriend.
Theme 1: victim blaming. Victim Blaming emerged as a first theme in this study. It refers to the emphasis put on the female victim's behaviour and wishes as a cause for femicide. In both Greek-Cypriot and TurkishCypriot communities several media reports had been identified which portrait women's desire particularly for a divorce or a break up as a reason for argument and discussion among the couple consequently, as a justification for femicide. For example, the case of A.S.'s femicide in 2013 in Turkish-Cypriot community was represented in the media with a news titled ‘Asked for a divorce and got killed- in Kıbrıs Postası’ it was also reported that the killer husband also threatened to kill the family before he shot himself by saying ‘I killed her and I will kill you all as well’. In the Greek-Cypriot community in 2015 the case of a woman who was killed by her husband at her workplace after she asked for a divorced because she fall in love with another man and was represented in the media with the title: ‘She fall in love with another man, she asked for a divorce from her husband and this led her to death’- in Cytoday (17/12/ 2015).
Context of the relationship with the perpetrator This category reports the context of motivation and violence and how this category is related to the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim. Most of the murders 75% (n = 21) in the Greek-Cypriot community are due to disagreements, fights and jealousy between the partners. Further, 25% (n = 7) of murder cases have not been examined or defined the reasons of killing. In the Turkish-Cypriot community 56% (n = 9) of the murders were found to be due to disagreements, fights and jealousy while for the 18% (n = 3) of the cases the reason remains unknown. Method of killing Among the 28 incidents of femicide committed between 2010 and 2016 in the Greek-Cypriot community, different methods of killing have been used. Mainly at 30% (n = 8) of the femicide cases the perpetrators used a gun to kill their victims, 18% (n = 5) used other instruments (e.g. laptop, stone), 18% (n = 6) used sharp instruments (such as knife), 11% (n = 4) exert physical violence on the victim, 7% (n = 2) cases used strangulation, 4% (n = 1) used poison, 4% (n = 1) used fire, 4% (n = 1) abandonment (in a case of an infant) and 4% (n = 1) no method was recorded. In the Turkish-Cypriot community 50% (n = 6) of the perpetrators used a gun as their main instrument of killing, 18% (n = 2) used a sharp instrument (knife mainly), 8% (n = 1) used poison, 8% (n = 1) used strangulation, 8% (n = 1) the victim jumped and 8% (n = 1) pushed off from the balcony.
Theme 2: ‘The G3 gun possession’. This theme refers to the attention given to the gun possession in the media as a cause of femicide. This was evident in the Greek-Cypriot media and specifically, there were too many media reportings on the law that gives the right to men of the G3 gun possession, consequently allowing easier access for men to kill their wives. This was evident in one of the cases, which happened in GreekCypriot community where a husband murdered his wife and daughter with the use of his G3 gun of the army at the 18th of June of 2014 – Fileleftheros (24/06/2014). And this gave the opportunity to media to focus their reporting on the issue of a gun possession and specifically some of the main newspapers had the following news titles: ‘They accused the G3 and the army’- Filelfetheros (20/06/2014), ‘Let's save at least one life…let's stop the right of gun possession’ – Simerini (20/6/ 2014), ‘Gun possession in the table’ – Alithia (03/09/2014).
Location of incident In the Greek-Cypriot community, 53% (n = 14) of women were killed in their homes while 25% (n = 7) of women were killed in public areas. In the Turkish-Cypriot community most women; 65% (n = 9) were killed in their own houses (where victims and perpetrators were living together). The rest incidents took place as follow: 7% (n = 1) in the victim's house, 7% (n = 1) in the victim's motherhouse, 14% (n = 2) in a public area and 7% (n = 1) in the victim's workplace.
Theme 3: ‘Use of a sexist language’. This theme refers to the sexist language used by media in order to blame women for what happened and excuses men from committing femicide. Particular use of a sexist 3
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masculine viewpoint was dominant in the media representations of the femicide cases. These media representations give credit to men who in turn are perceived as fulfilling their gender roles and expectations from them in a masculine society. Media's vital role on creating understandings or social constructs of crimes such as domestic violence or femicide for the members of the public who have little to no experience with violence cannot be denied (Pantaleo, 2010). Understanding the language used in media to portray femicide cases is, therefore, important. Similar to the findings of this study many early studies in this field also noted the dominance of sexist language in reportings of the femicide cases through media. For example, a content analysis of femicide cases in newspapers carried out by many researchers as Folingstad, Rutledge, McNeill-Hawkins, and Polek (1992) and Meyers (1997) showed that media generally portray the perpetrators as innocent beings for their actions. Title of the English articles analysed in these studies also clearly showed the sexist approach towards femicide cases; “Tragedy After Wife Left,” “Together Again in the Grave.” Similar to these, findings of this study also showed that the use of the Greek and Turkish languages in media is also sexist when reporting violence against women. Words that are sexual with a disdainful attitude are generally used to describe women while men are displayed as heroes; ‘Killed his wife to save his family's name’. Furthermore, in both communities it was found that media defined women in terms of their relationships to men, disregarding women as individuals. Such coverage of the femicide cases in Greek and Turkish-Cypriot media, therefore, continues to put an emphasis on patriarchal tendencies hinder the important context of femicide. Another finding that emerged was that most of the reporting had not given any information on the issue of violence against women, in order to increase public's sensitivity and ways to prevent such cases as well as the legal procedure to be followed. It can be argued that media emphasized cases will probably provide an increased publicity, mainly due to tragic and sensitive circumstances (such as killing of a child). Reporting's emphasize male violence, while sending women a threatening message about what might happen to them if they are to ask for a divorce. Also, by reporting the way women got killed and the weapons used to kill them normalises violence towards women as well as the femicide incidents. It also warns women who are not being the ideal wife/partner about how their death can be slow and painful. This shows the commonality of victim blaming among Greek and Turkish media when reporting the femicide cases. According to Berns (2004), victim blaming in media for the femicide case is a societal problem that needs to be addressed. In her study on domestic violence, she identified that in the 97% of the articles analysed, victim was shown as responsible for her killing. Frames and the way they are used in media are particularly important as they create meanings and/or interpretations in one's mind without much awareness. Thus blaming the victim for femicide systematically shifts the focus off the abuser and generally puts emphasis on the victim's behaviour or wishes. Similarly, to Berns' (2004) work, in this study intentional blaming of women for femicide cases were identified in both the Greek and Turkish media reportings. As reported in the findings section emphasis was put on women's behaviour or wishes; ‘Asked for a divorce and got killed and She fall in love with another man, she asked for a divorce from her husband and this led her to death.’ It could be argued that along with the Greek-Cypriot and TurkishCypriot media's use of a sexist language, blaming women for their killings create negative perceptions about women among the members of the public, consequently under-prioritising such cases and what can be done about the problem. Further to these, findings of this study showed the importance given to gun possession particularly in Greek-Cypriot media when reporting femicide cases. Similar to this gun possession as a risk factor for femicide had been well documented by much research world-wide such as Campbell et al. (2003), Abrahams, Jewkes, and Mathews (2010) and Adinkrah (2014). The fact that media had paid too much attention on gun possession; ‘They accused the G3 and the army’, ‘Let's save at least one
language in the Turkish-Cypriot media was evident. For example, in 2017 G.P.'s murder was reflected as ‘Honour Killing’ and ‘Did it to save his family's name’ in the media. In the Greek-Cypriot media femicides cases were also reflected in the same way; for example two different cases were represented as such ‘I didn't want to kill her’ Simerini title (05/01/2011) or in another case of a murder of a woman that happened on the 15/10/2016, another newspaper had given the following title: ‘Τhe offender conviction was too harsh for murdering his wife with toxic liquid’- Sigmalive (15/03/2017). Limitations Police and media reported data that are not aligned, meaning that some data received from the police were incomplete (e.g. relation of victim). However, in the media articles sometimes were given more details for some cases than from the police data. For the TurkishCypriot community ‘police’ data was not provided. For the purpose of this study only intimate partner cases were reported and limited information was provided to make appropriate comparisons among the Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot cases. However, authors believe that the data revealed are much useful for Cyprus and as this is a pilot study, it may form a base for more detailed research. Authors argue that femicide cases in both communities are much more than those reported, thus the data presented in this report are indicative to the problem. Discussion Findings showed that femicide exists in Cyprus with an important recorded number of cases in relation to the island's population in both communities (for the Republic of Cyprus Eurostat reports population of 854,802 in 2017). To date police data do not clearly report femicides as a violence against women, but rather they report it mainly as homicides. More emphasis is given on family violence as the national law states. Homicides that take place outside the family because of genderbased violence are not categorized as such, although data showed that indeed the majority of the cases could be categorized as gender-based violence. In a way, this is understandable as the law underlines family violence and culturally family in both communities mostly is assumed to be the nuclear type. Based on previous qualitative research study that was conducted by Kapardis, Baldry, and Konstantinou (2017) that contextualizes femicide in the broader context of domestic violence and homicide in the Republic of Cyprus for the Greek-Cypriot community, 63% of female homicide victims were killed by someone they knew well and trusted. The findings of the current study showed that there are many similarities in femicide cases between the two communities, the GreekCypriot and Turkish-Cypriot. A comparison of the data reveals that femicide can affect women at any age. However, it seems that women are most likely to become the victims of femicide between the age of 26–45 in both communities. Similarly, even though perpetrator can be of any age, in the Greek-Cypriot community, perpetrators of femicide cases tend to be between 26 and 45 years old. Regarding the relationship between the victim and the perpetrator, results show that women in both communities are more likely to be killed by their husbands, boyfriends or ex-husbands or ex-boyfriends. Regarding the context of the relationship with the perpetrators data reveals that in both communities, most of the murders are due to disagreements, fights, jealousy but only a few of them have been reported as violence in the family. Most common method of killing used by the perpetrators in both communities was the use of gun and women were found to be more likely to be killed at their homes and this is aligned with the gender-based violence incidences (UK Official National Statistics, 2018). Media reportings in both communities have approached the representations of the femicide cases in the same way since they share a common sexist approach to present such cases. Results showed that the 4
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justice done (Brennan, 2017). Employers need to ensure that they have appropriate policies and procedures to support and protect their employees and to provide training and guidance to their staff (Brennan, 2017). Moreover, reports on the incidence and consequences of femicide need to be developed, disseminated, and publicized for awareness raising and advocacy causes around femicide and this can be accomplished with the reinforcement of the overall data collection. Femicide is the ultimate act of gender-based violence. Interdisciplinary immediate actions are vital, particularly to communities that due to cultural, social and other factors this is much evident.
life…let's stop the right of gun possession’, instead of violence against women, had, however, managed to disorient the community. This also gives false messages and to once again that violence is accepted. A 2007 study carried out by Kates and Mauser also known as the Harvard Study showed no consistent differences in violent homicide rates between countries that have strict handgun possession policy and those who do not. For example, in their review they reported that in Luxembourg, where handguns are banned and the ownership of such weapons is minimal, the murder rates are 10 times higher than in other European countries as Norway and Germany where gun ownership is legal and high. Similar situation could be observed in Canada as well where handguns had been banned since 1934. Despite this strict approach no difference is observed in violent homicide cases between Canada and America where gun possession is legal. It could, therefore, be argued that other means are found by the members of the public for violent act as femicide in the absence of guns. Considering the fact that media's role is to inform and to protect and empower the public about their rights as well as to increase awareness, it could be argued that media reporting on femicide in Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities seem to be not adequate. Although gun possession could be a risk factor, intention of assaulting or killing seems to carry greater importance. Thus, both Greek and Turkish Cypriot media should focus on one's intention on assaulting or killing another person.
Acknowledgements This study has been awarded by the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation. Authors greatly thank the Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou and the Foundation for their support and effort in promoting bicommunal actions and research. References Abrahams, N., Jewkes, R., & Mathews, S. (2010). Guns and gender-based violence in South Africa. SAMJ: South African Medical Journal, 100(9), 586–588. Adinkrah, M. (2014). Intimate partner femicide–suicides in Ghana: Victims, offenders, and incident characteristics. Violence Against Women, 20(9), 1078–1096. Berkeley Media Studies Group (2009). Moving from them to us: Challenges in reframing violence among youth. Berkeley Media Studies Grouphttp://www.bmsg.org/ resources/publications/moving-from-them-to-us-challenges-in-reframing-violenceamong-youth/. Berns, N. (2004). Framing the victim: Domestic violence, media and social problems. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter. Braber, N. (2015). Representation of domestic violence in two British newspapers, the guardian and the sun, 2009–2011. English Language Research Journal, 1, 86–104. Brennan, D. (2017). The femicide census: 2016 findings. Annual report on cases of femicide in 2016. Available at https://1q7dqy2unor827bqjls0c4rn-wpengine.netdnassl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/The-Femicide-Census-Report-published2017.pdf, Accessed date: 20 February 2019. Campbell, J. C., Webster, D., Koziol-McLain, J., Block, C., Campbell, D., Curry, M. A., & Laughon, K. (2003). Risk factors for femicide in abusive relationships: Results from a multisite case control study. American Journal of Public Health, 93(7), 1089–1097. Corradi, C., Marcuello-Servos, C., Boira, S., & Weil, S. (2016). Theories of femicide and their significance for social research. Current Sociology, 64(7), 975–995. Council of Europe (2011). Council of Europe convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. Preamble and article 3. Available at https://rm.coe.int/168008482e, Accessed date: 24 August 2018. Dobash, R. P., & Dobash, R. E. (2012). Who died? The murder of collaterals related to intimate partner conflict. Violence Against Women, 18, 662–671. Folingstad, D. R., Rutledge, L. L., McNeill-Hawkins, K., & Polek, D. S. (1992). Factors related to physical violence in dating relationships. Intimate violence: Interdisciplinary perspectives (pp. 121–135). . Hall, R. J. (2015). Feminist strategies to end violence against women. In R. Baksh, & W. Hancourt (Eds.). The Oxford handbook of transnational feminist movements (pp. 394– 415). USA: Oxford University Press. Available at http://eltalondeaquiles.pucp.edu. pe/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Oxford-Handbooks-Rawwida-Baksh-WendyHarcourt-The-Oxford-Handbook-of-Transnational-Feminist-Movements-OxfordUniversity-Press-2015.pdf, Accessed date: 25 August 2018. Kapardis, A., Baldry, C. A., & Konstantinou, M. (2017). A qualitative study of intimate partner femicide and orphans in Cyprus. Qualitative Sociology Review, XIII(3), 80–100. Kim, S. (2008). Feminist discourse and the hegemonic role of mass media: Newspaper discourse about two South Korean television dramas. Feminist Media Studies, 8(4), 391–406. Kouta, C., Boira, S., Nudelman, A., & Gill, A. K. (2018). Understanding and preventing femicide using a cultural and ecological approach. In Weil, (Ed.). Femicide across Europe (pp. 51–67). UK: Policy Press. Kouta, C., Rousou, E., Freysteinsdottir, F. J., Boira, S., & Naudi, M. (2017). Gender and socio-cultural perspectives through femicide case studies. Journal of Community Medicine and Health Care, 2(2), 1013. Available at http://austinpublishinggroup. com/community-medicine/fulltext/jcmhc-v2-id1013.php, Accessed date: 24 March 2019. Lewandowski, A. L., McFarlane, J., Campbell, C. J., Gary, F., & Barenski, C. (2004). He killed my mommy! Murder or attempted murder of a child’s mother. Journal of Family Violence, 19, 211–220. Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies (2018). Media coverage. Available at http:// www.medinstgenderstudies.org/category/press-room/, Accessed date: 20 January 2019. Meyers, M. (1997). News coverage of violence against women: Engendering blame (book review). Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 74(3), 652. Pantaleo, K. (2010). Gendered violence: An analysis of the maquiladora murders. International Criminal Justice Review, 20(4), 349–365. Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), InterCambios, Medical Research Council of South Africa (MRC), & WHO (2009). Strengthening understanding of
Conclusions and recommendations This study shows that femicide prevention is in its early stages in Cyprus. Both communities share a lot in common regarding femicide cases. It seems that a preventative and interventional strategy is needed to reduce the number of women killed by men. Considering the role of media on shaping the public's attitudes and perceptions as well as policies on violence cases as femicide (Berkeley Media Studies Group, 2009), looking into the media representations of such cases could be considered as a first step in understanding and changing the problem consequently public's attitudes. Further to this, a variety of measures need to be taken and related stakeholders need to be involved to combat this phenomenon. The UN SRVAW (United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women) has called on all governments to set up a Femicide Watch to collect data as a crucial tool for the development of effective strategies to address this serious human rights violation and for that data to be published annually (Brennan, 2017). There are several key recommendations that can be taken in consideration by the stakeholders involved in both communities to help combating this phenomenon. The government should take more radical measures to reduce violence against women. To provide hotlines, reporting systems, advocacy groups to prevent extreme violence and to have better cooperation with NGOs to guarantee of sustainable funding for specialized services (Kouta et al., 2017). It is also important to provide secure funding for systemic and continuous training of professionals on violence against women (Kouta et al., 2017) and more trainings in schools and in the community in general. In addition, national level data, national registries, or dedicated sections on femicide are needed in existing homicide databases. Further, the police should cooperate with academics and professionals to develop a strategic and supportive plan to deal with femicide cases in order to prevent future deaths (PATH, InterCambios, MRC and WHO, 2009) and to nominate a specific senior officer for each police force area responsible. Ssensitizing of media professionals through awareness raising and training are essential to strengthen skills in gender-sensitive, complete reporting on femicides. Further, it seems that is necessary to review the range of sentencing for femicide in order to identify the reasons for the significant variation in sentences (from 2 years to life sentenced for murder) and establish further guidance on the trial and sentencing of femicide cases to ensure all perpetrators are equally held accounted and victims' families can see 5
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femicide. Washington DC. Available at https://path.azureedge.net/media/ documents/GVR_femicide_rpt.pdf, Accessed date: 30 July 2018. Shor, E., Van de Rijt, A., Miltsov, A., Kulkarni, V., & Skiena, S. (2015). A paper ceiling: Explaining the persistent underrepresentation of women in printed news. American Sociological Review, 80(5), 960–984. Sosa, L. P. (2017). Inter-American case law on femicide: Obscuring intersections? Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, 35(2), 85–103. Sultana, A. (2012). Patriarchy and women s subordination: A theoretical analysis. Arts Faculty Journal, 4, 1–18. Triece, M. E. (1999). The practical true woman: Reconciling women and work in popular mail-order magazines, 1900–1920. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 16(1), 42–62.
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