Overview
- Experts report that women are killed by partners or ex-partners in Germany nearly every other day, yet the true scope remains uncertain because motives are not captured in police statistics.
- The Institute for Criminology at the University of Tübingen and the Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony are presenting project results today on how to define and measure femicide.
- Survivor accounts detail coercive control that escalated to severe assaults and attempted killings, including strangulation, stabbing and being rammed with a car.
- Multiple testimonies describe inadequate police and court responses, with dozens of complaints yielding few convictions and serious attacks resulting in short or suspended sentences.
- Women’s shelters and protective housing are frequently unavailable, risk peaks during separation, bystander interventions can be decisive, and some survivors face adverse family-court outcomes such as loss of custody.