“We’re not all there, we’re missing the dead ones.” The classic feminist phrase is common on posters during protests against violence against women. In Portugal, in the year 2025, 21 women and two children died in the context of domestic violence. It was the year with the highest number of victims since 2022, when 28 deaths were recorded.
In the case of female victims, in many countries around the world this crime has a specific name and is typified by law: feminicide or femicide. In Portugal, men (who are the overwhelming majority of perpetrators of these crimes) are tried for aggravated homicide, but there is no crime of femicide.
A search in academic repositories reveals several master’s and doctoral theses on the topic, This is a debate that is not new in Portuguese universities. Several of the studies are comparative in scope, since countries in Latin America and even Europe have made changes to the law to make this crime autonomous in the Penal Code.
Recently, the People-Animals-Nature Party (PAN) presented a bill in the Assembly of the Republic (AR) for the “autonomization of the crime of feminicide in the Penal Code, punishable by 15 to 25 years in prison and without the possibility of applying special mitigation regimes based exclusively on emotional or relational states with the victim”.
The proposal was rejected, with votes against from PSD, PS (with the exception of three parliamentarians, who abstained), IL and CDS-PP. CH, PCP and BE abstained, while there were only two votes in favor: from the PAN deputy, Inês Sousa Real, and Filipe de Sousa, from Juntos Pelo Povo (JPP).
To DN, Sousa Real, regrets the situation. “We know that it will take several decades to reduce the gender inequality gap, which is based on different cultural, social, religious and economic factors. But when this inequality means the loss of life for women, it is essential that criminal law, taking into account its preventive, dissuasive and punitive nature, mirrors this reality and social concern, so that no more women lose their lives because they are women.
Visibility
Cheila Colaço, one of the spokespeople for Rede 8 de Março, tells DN that “We welcome all the measures that can be taken to make this crime gain visibility”. For examples such as Italy and Brazil, he reflects that “creating this classification gave greater visibility to crimes that, normally, are not associated with the crime of domestic violence”.
Therefore, he believes that it is beneficial for cases to have more visibility. “More visibility is gained in relation, for example, to crimes that occur in the context of dating violence, in the context of extramarital relationships, and I’m talking about cases that actually happened in Portugal in recent times”, he highlights. There are also situations that can be included in this crime, such as “people who are strangers or little known, such as in dating contexts. dating appsand we also had a very shocking case that became known in our country“, he details.
Francisca Soromenho, professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon (FDUL), tells the newspaper that discussion about crime is necessary. “Portugal needs this discussion, without a doubt, because there is clearly a pipelineas we can say, between the crime of domestic violence, which disproportionately affects women, and then cases of domestic violence that result in femicide. AND Portugal has a rate that is worrying and is a subject that deserves to be discussed, obviously it has to be discussed based on evidence and based on numbers and statistical analysis”, he assesses.
According to the professor, at the university the subject is not new. “Obviously, academia and experts on these subjects are sometimes a little ahead of the social discussion, as is normal and as happened in many other cases, but it seems to me that women and society in general in Portugal are a little more aware of this issue than they were, five years ago, for example”, he highlights.
For the teacher, it is nothing new in society that current strategies are not working. “It has already been realized that the public policies we currently have to combat domestic violence are ineffective in preventing the most serious outcomes of all, which is the death of women.“, he argues.
Prevention and combat
In Cheila Colaço’s opinion, simply changing the law is not enough. “We emphasize that typification is not enough, this issue of feminicides has to be combatted at various levels, at the level of education, at the level of activism, at various levels, so that, effectively, there can be a change that is cultural and social and that cannot be resolved just with typification”, he argues. “This is an issue that results from sexist culture, which results from a society in which misogyny is present“, he complements.
Professor Francisca Soromenho points out that it is necessary to act more on prevention. “The result we want is to have more severe penalties for cases that fall under feminicide, that is, situations of domestic violence that result in the death of women when they are victims? Is it just for sanctioning reasons or are we trying to prevent it? I think prevention would be the most important thing”, he asks.
The professor says she does not know whether the classification will have this impact, but “in fact it would be important to be a signal that women are in a situation of special vulnerability and that because of this the State recognizes that they need special protection”. At the same time, remember that these are situations that evolve. A few years ago, the crime of domestic violence didn’t even exist.
The DN questioned the Ministry of Justice about whether it is in the Government’s plans to make femicide a crime, but did not receive a response by the time the edition closed.
amanda.lima@dn.pt
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