LIMA – Over the past year, an average of nine woman were murdered by their spouses, boyfriends or ex-partners each month in Peru and many of these crimes were motivated by jealousy, according to government data cited Sunday by the daily Peru.21.

The head of the Criminality Observatory within the Peruvian Attorney General’s Office, Rocio Villanueva, said that since September 2008, 109 murders of women – a crime often referred to as a “femicide” – have been committed in this South American country.

Of that figure, 97 women were killed by their spouses, ex-boyfriends or in incidents of domestic violence, Peru.21 reported.

The newspaper added that 41 percent of those cases were motivated by impulsive jealousy on the part of the men and that 10 percent of the murdered women were pregnant.

According to the AG Office, the majority of women murdered by their husbands were between 18 and 24 years old, the paper said.

“The figures show that Peruvian women are dying in disproportionate circumstances to the men,” said Villanueva, noting that 1.5 percent of the males who died were murdered by their female partners.

Meanwhile, Freddy Vasquez, a psychiatrist with the Honorio Delgado Hideyo Noguchi Mental Health Institute, said that the most common profile of the Peruvian men involved in these incidents “is the typical jealous macho (male) who only wants the woman to fulfill the role of mother.”

The majority of the women who suffer from ongoing physical abuse from their partners and wind up being murdered are strangled, stabbed to death or asphyxiated in their own homes.