Male-Centred Norms and Intimate Partner Femicides: A Case Study in German Homicide Law

This paper examines male-centred norms and femicide from a feminist criminology perspective, conducting a case study of the German criminal law's response to intimate partner femicide. Focusing on the legal framework of homicide in the German Criminal Code (StGB), it critiques the doctrinal understanding of the statutory wording ‘despicable reasons’ in the context of femicide as perpetuating gendered biases rooted in male-centred norms. By analysing case law and feminist criminological scholarship, the paper highlights how the case law’s concept of ‘ordinary psychological motives’ fails to adequately address gendered violence. It calls for a different perception of ‘the ordinary’ to better reflect the gendered dynamics of intimate partner femicide on a case-by-case approach.