It's not enough to keep records: we need to convert femicide data into effective action

In June, the number of women murdered in cases of gender-based violence in Spain in 2025 reached 20. This brought the total number of victims since official records were first kept in 2003 to 1,314, according to the Government Delegation against Gender Violence. But these figures only make real sense when analysed in depth. Femicide – the most extreme manifestation of violence against women – and gender-based violence are a global problem closely linked to structural inequalities of power between men and women.

The roots and consequences of this violence make it essential to analyse not only its causes, but also how data are recorded, interpreted, and communicated. How they are treated conditions the way in which society understands the problem and how countries design their prevention policies.

The open-access study Datos sobre feminicidios. Oportunidades y desafíos para las instituciones y la sociedad civil en los Estados español y colombiano (Femicide data. Opportunities and challenges for institutions and civil society in Spain and Colombia) analyses how data on femicide are generated and used in Spain and Colombia, and what lessons can be learned to improve public policies and social action against gender-based violence.

The study was led by researcher Milagros Sáinz, coordinator of the Gender and ICT (GenTIC) research group at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC). Sáinz and her team -which includes a researcher from the Barcelona Institute of International Studies (IBEI) and another from the Industrial University of Santander (Colombia)- hope this study will contribute to the fight against femicide and all types of violence against women by providing strategies to prevent and eradicate it in all social classes and at all stages of life.

The need to analyse data on femicide

Violence against women, and how it manifests through femicide, is a global problem. It is necessary, therefore, to understand how different countries, in this case Spain and Colombia, are addressing how to stop it. "We need to join forces to fight this scourge and learn from the good practices being developed elsewhere in order to deploy possible preventive strategies with an approach based on restorative justice," said Sáinz.

The study concludes that the main challenges are ensuring that data are translated into effective action, that the State listens to the voices of victims, their families and the organizations that support them, and that structural conditions are created to prevent repetition. "Society must take joint responsibility in the fight against gender-based violence, and everyone must feel empowered to report any instances of gender-based violence they may witness in their neighbourhoods, at work, at home or in the street," said Sáinz, whose team is part of UOC-TRÀNSIC research centre.

The good practices identified in the study point to the need for a comprehensive approach that combines legal, pedagogical, social, and community measures, while recognizing the authority of the State and the central role of civil society. "Measures to prevent femicide should be aimed not only at protecting victims, but also at detecting previous patterns of violence by the perpetrator," Sáinz explained.

"To achieve this, early warning systems based on risk profiles must be implemented, work with perpetrators must be intensified, and protection routes adapted to align with the regional, social and cultural context of each case must be guaranteed. Restorative practices, such as psychosocial support in schools and neighbourhoods and the acknowledgement of social pain, must be incorporated as core components of reparation," she added.

According to Sáinz, femicide must cease to be viewed exclusively as a criminal phenomenon and must be understood as an expression of structural violence rooted in unequal power relations, patriarchy, racism, forced migration and social exclusion.

The case of the Spanish model

Spain currently has a system for collecting, processing and analysing data on gender-based violence, making it a leading international force in the fight against this type of problem. The main advances in recent decades have involved developing comprehensive legislation and a solid institutional framework that includes the 2004 Organic Law on protection measures against gender violence, the State Strategy to Combat Gender-Based Violence, and the Istanbul Convention.

"These measures have led to the creation of a system of prevention, care, punishment and reparation that includes specialized courts, protection measures for victims (such as the emergency phone line with GPS), and coordination between different national agencies to guarantee the protection and rights of women. This interinstitutional coordination is one of its strong points. We should also note the emergence of statistical frameworks that incorporate citizen-based data," explained Sáinz.

However, despite the progress made, certain changes in data processing are still needed in Spain to improve public policies. "The compilation, processing and analysis of data on femicides need to be improved, to extend them beyond the scope of partners and ex-partners, since many deaths occur outside these contexts. It is also necessary to include an intersectional perspective to help provide prevention and restorative justice strategies that involve different social agents from different communities," Sáinz said.

There is a need to incorporate more data on perpetrators in order to establish risk profiles, and on the context in which femicide has occurred in order to establish mechanisms for prevention. The study highlights, as a success story and example of best practice, the Feminicidio.net project, which has developed a collective memory around the victims. The portal not only records data, but also narrates the lives and individual circumstances of murdered women, dignifying them and making them visible beyond the crime itself.

The future of the fight against femicide

In the study, Sáinz and her team point out that simply improving the data is not enough: it is necessary to transform the social, institutional and symbolic conditions that make violence possible. They place special emphasis on the importance of states and civil society joining forces to achieve this social transformation and on all of us feeling jointly responsible in the fight against femicide and gender-based violence. "We will be an advanced society when we succeed in eradicating violence against women and are determined not to give way, taking joint responsibility for its presence in our society," they said.

This project aligns with the UOC's research missions on Planetary health and well-being, and Ethical and human-centred technology, and contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 5, Gender Equality; SDG 10, Reduced Inequalities, and SDG 16, Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.

Reference article

Sáinz, M. [Milagros], López, B. [Beatriz], Galán, S. [Susana], Grau, M. [Mónica], Gómez, V. [Valentina]. (2025). Datos sobre feminicidios: Oportunidades y desafíos para las instituciones y la sociedad civil en los Estados español y colombiano. Plataforma unitària contra les violències de gènere. https://hdl.handle.net/10609/153425

Transformative, impactful research

At the UOC, we see research as a strategic tool to advance towards a future society that is more critical, responsible and nonconformist. With this vision, we conduct applied research that's interdisciplinary and linked to the most important social, technological and educational challenges.

The UOC’s over 500 researchers and more than 50 research groups are working in five research units focusing on five missions: lifelong learning; ethical and human-centred technology; digital transition and sustainability; culture for a critical society, and digital health and planetary well-being.

The university's Hubbik platform fosters knowledge transfer and entrepreneurship in the UOC community.

More information: www.uoc.edu/en/research