141 victims of femicide were registered in Peru in 2021

In the year 2021, 141 cases of femicides were registered and in the period 2015-2021 this figure reached 897; this was made known by the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (INEI) in the document: "Peru: Feminicide and Violence against Women, 2015 - 2021", prepared from the administrative records of the Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations, Judicial Power, Public Ministry, Ministry of the Interior, National Police of Peru, Ministry of Justice and Human Rights and the National Penitentiary Institute. It also includes information from the Demographic and Family Health Survey (ENDES), which is carried out by INEI on a continuous basis.

The murder of women for gender-based reasons is the most serious and extreme violence against women; this type of violence affects girls and women regardless of their economic, social or cultural situation. Most of the homicides of women occur in younger ages; in 2021, 49.7% of femicides were in women under 30 years of age; that is, there were 70 gender-related homicides of women in that age group. Likewise, it is observed, the increase of femicides in adolescents under 18 years of age, going from 6.1% in 2019 to 12.1% in 2021.

In the 2015-2021 period, of the total number of femicides, 8.5% (74) were perpetrated on adolescents under 18 years of age, 46.0% (401) on women aged 18 to 29 years, 23.4% (204) were aged 30 to 39 years, 15.0% (131) were aged 40 to 49 years and 7.0% (61) were women aged 50 years and older.

In 2021, 43.3% of femicide victims were killed by their partner/cohabitant or by their ex-partner/ex-cohabitant (9.9% husband, 7.8% ex-spouse, 14.9% ex-partner/ex-cohabitant and 10.6% partner/cohabitant), which shows that femicide homicides occur in the core of a romantic relationship and after a breakup. 32.6% of femicides were caused by an acquaintance and 17.0% by an unknown person.

In 2021, the department of Madre de Dios reported the highest rate of femicides in the entire country, reaching 6.4 per 100,000 women; followed by Apurímac with 2.9, Amazonas 1.9, Tumbes 1.7, San Martín and Huánuco with 1.6 each, Ayacucho and Lima with 1.5 each, Ica and Cusco with 1.2 each, Huancavelica 1.1, as well as Ucayali, Arequipa and Loreto with 1.0 femicide per 100,000 women. The national average rate of registered femicides was 0.8 per 100,000 women.

It is worth mentioning that, during 2021, in Metropolitan Lima 32 femicides were reported, in Arequipa and Cusco 8, in each case; meanwhile, in the Constitutional Province 5 femicides were reported. Meanwhile, in the period 2015-2021, the district of San Juan de Lurigancho recorded the highest number of femicides (22).

INEI indicated that, as of 2021 and according to the form or means used to commit the femicide, 32.6% of the cases involved the use of a knife, 24.1% involved strangulation, asphyxiation and drowning, and 10.6% of the femicides were committed with a firearm.

Between the years 2015-2021, family violence (330) would be the main cause of reported femicides, followed by jealousy (319), revenge (92), alleged infidelity of the partner (58) refusal of the victim to continue the relationship (45), traumatic blows (39), sexual abuse (25), while drunk or other (22), to facilitate or conceal another crime (10), economic problems (6); and other reasons (120).

By 2021, the prison population incarcerated for intentional homicide reached 5,442 and for femicide 683, which in percentage terms represented 12.6% of the overall prison population.

Of the prison population incarcerated for the crime of femicide, 677 are men and 6 are women. According to marital status, 52.3% are single, 27.4% are cohabitants and 12.6% are married; and by age group, 424 inmates are between 30 and 49 years old, 158 are between 18 and 29 years old and 101 are between 50 and older. According to the educational level of those imprisoned for femicide, 436 have complete or incomplete secondary education; 146 have complete or incomplete primary education and 94 have complete or incomplete higher education.

Most of those imprisoned for this crime lived in Metropolitan Lima (167), followed by Cusco (57) and Arequipa (49), among others.

In 2021, the Peruvian National Police registered 240,875 reports of domestic violence nationwide, with the highest number of cases in Metropolitan Lima (66,97 reports), Arequipa (18,615), Piura (15,606), Junín (13,540) and Cusco (11,294).

By the year 2021, 32.5% of women 14 years of age and older will have no income of their own, equivalent to 2.3 times more than men (14.3%); moreover, the most significant gap is found among women in rural areas, where 43.1% of them have no income of their own, while in the case of men it represents 12.2%. It is worth mentioning that the lack of economic autonomy implies the absence of their own income and determines greater individual poverty. Those who have their own income often have greater decision-making power over the use of their income, greater possibilities of reserving part of their money for individual expenses and better possibilities of managing their own upkeep, especially if there are changes in the family structure of origin.