City Research Online

Abstract

This article addresses ‘non-intimate femicide’ (NIF), referring to the killing of women and girls outside of family and intimate relationships. Despite substantial proportions of femicides involving non-intimate circumstances, there is a dearth of evidence, research and policy on NIF. Using Homicide Index data for England and Wales (2002–2022), this article provides original insight into the victim, perpetrator and incident characteristics in NIF cases, and reveals important differences between intimate and NIF, as well as high levels of missing or poorly recorded data. We argue for more accurate recording of NIF, alongside a ‘continua thinking’ approach to femicide research, which documents the killing of all women and girls across a range of intimate and non-intimate contexts.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© The Author(s) 2026. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (ISTD). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC BY license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Publisher Keywords:	femicide, non-intimate femicide, counting/recording femicide, continuum of violence
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform
Departments:	School of Policy & Global Affairs School of Policy & Global Affairs > Violence and Society Centre
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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