The Femicide Detectives

Every day in Mexico, around 10 women are murdered – almost always by men.

It’s an epidemic of gender-based violence that threatens to spiral out of control.

Now, specialised police squads are trying to reverse the trend and bring the guilty to justice. But can they overcome years of machismo culture and indifference?

In the past, too many murders of women have been half-heartedly investigated or simply dismissed as suicides. Special Prosecutor Sayuri Herrera says that hitherto perpetrators have relied on long-standing prejudices to evade the law. “They count on us believing their lies because society has somehow always proved them right,” she says.

Mexico’s dedicated femicide detectives, Herrera insists, are now beginning to challenge that assumption. For this film, reporter Sarah Ferguson went behind the scenes to gauge their chances of success.