Search results

The purpose of this paper is to explore attitudes towards, and victimisation experiences of, “honour”-based violence (HBV) in a reportedly vulnerable population in the UK.

A convenience sample of 216 participants were recruited from a local community in England; the majority were young (mean age=21.93), Indian or Pakistani (85 per cent), Muslim (96 per cent), females (67 per cent).

Although gender differences were found for attitudes towards one aspect of HBV (namely, forced marriage), these were not significant. While HBV victimisation affected only a small proportion of this sample, when it was reported, the effects were serious and included anxiety, attempted suicides and running away from home. This highlights the need to identify and safeguard vulnerable groups without stigmatising whole communities.

These findings contribute to the scarce literature available on HBV in British communities, and highlight a need for culturally aware emergency and health service provision.

“Honour”-based violence (HBV), a form of gender-based violence (GBV), has received increasing interest from media, human rights organisations, academics and the public. A significant increase in the occurrence and reporting of HBV in many parts of the world and its detrimental impact on the health and well-being of women, girls, communities and wider society; marks it as a major public health concern. However, awareness and recognition of HBV in the field of public health is low in many countries and there is little known about its nature, roots and distribution. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The literature was searched using the Scopus database and a series of search terms related to HBV, GBV and health and well-being.

Definition of HBV and its forms is varied across cultures. There is a lack of consensus on how HBV can be identified over other forms of violence and no explicit theoretical perspectives have been sufficiently developed to deepen the understanding of HBV. Although the findings from the review suggest that HBV forms and patterns may be regionally distinct, causes emanate from gender-based and socio-economic inequalities.

This review has limitations in that it included only English and Spanish language papers and those accessed through Scopus; it therefore may have excluded papers from other languages, countries and databases. Another major weakness in this review was a lack of papers specifically dedicated to HBV. Despite these weaknesses the paper is an attempt to raise awareness and recognition of HBV in public health research, policy and practice domain.

The findings from the review highlight the complexity of tackling HBV in a globalised world. They also provide insights on how a public health model can be used to analyse both the causes and prevention of HBV. Further, a non-culturalised, unprejudiced and inclusive definition is required to flag-up and record HBV cases.

The use of ‘community’ in the governance of minority ethnic groups in the UK is explored in relation to public responses to violence against women. It will be argued that effective prevention requires an understanding of the socio‐cultural contexts women face in negotiating culture and ‘honour’.

The purpose of this paper is to address an emerging international debate about the involvement of females in perpetrating honour-based abuse (HBA). Presenting new empirical data, this study profiles the different roles played by women, discussing them in relation to gender and their relationships to victims, and argues that acknowledgement of female perpetrators does not fundamentally challenge a gendered interpretation of HBA.

Some 1,474 case files flagged as HBA were gathered from one police force in Southern England and 50 domestic abuse agencies across England and Wales. Descriptive statistics explored which victim, perpetrator and abuse characteristics were associated with female perpetration. Case narratives were thematically analysed to profile the different roles females played. Findings were explored in eight key informant interviews with caseworkers from the services data came from.

This paper finds that: females are more involved in perpetrating HBA than other forms of domestic abuse, but primary perpetrators are still mostly male; victims are overwhelmingly female; the context for abuse is the maintenance of patriarchal values on gender roles; female perpetrator roles vary, meriting further exploration; and female perpetrators can be conceptualised within a gendered framework.

This paper presents important new empirical data to advance the debate on the role of women in perpetrating HBA. It will be of interest to academics, researchers, policy-makers, and practitioners alike.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the links between forced marriage, running away/going missing and child sexual exploitation.

An extensive research review and interviews with experts and practitioners across the three fields identified a total of 22 cases in which young people (aged 18 and under) had experienced some combination of all three issues. Of these, nine case studies involving South Asian young people were explored in depth using a case study methodology.

Through adopting constitutive intersectionality as an analytical framework, the power of “community” emerged as a distinct theme within the cases. Concern about both family and community “honour” impacted young people’s decision making and help seeking processes. “Honour” also impacted parental responses to the young people as well as how they engaged with the professionals seeking to support them.

The safety of mothers also emerged as an issue, suggesting that this is an area for further research.

Practical implications for practice included: the need to address barriers to young people disclosing abuse and entering into the criminal justice process; difficulties associated with finding safe spaces to work with young people; the need to identify effective ways of working with abused young people who are unable to draw on relational and social support; and dangers associated with accessing support services.

An extensive review of the relevant research literature failed to uncover links between forced marriage, going missing and child sexual exploitation. This led the author to assert that the risk of child sexual exploitation as it relates to young South Asian young people who run away from home to escape forced marriage has been both under-acknowledged and under-explored (Sharp, 2013). Empirical research undertaken by the author over a 15-month period confirmed this assertion.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the role honor and shame play in honor killings and anti-LGBTQ homicides by identifying similarities and differences across these two homicide types.

This study uses data from the US Extremist Crime Database (ECDB). Data for each of the incidents included in the ECDB are gathered from various open sources through a multi-stage process. A total of 16 honor killings and 21 anti-LGBTQ cases (i.e. the universe for both groups) are examined in this analysis. A closed-coded analysis technique is utilized to assess each case for evidence of shame and honor as well as an iterative coding process to identify sub-categories within these broader themes.

Results indicate that shame and honor play important roles in both honor killings and anti-LGBTQ homicides, although their influence manifests differently across these two types of homicide. Perceived shame to the family is most closely related to honor killings, while suppressing homosexual urges underlines anti-LGBTQ homicides. Violations of religious tenets, protection of masculinity, and protection of honor are evidenced in both types of homicide.

This study uses a unique database to examine the ideological motivations of individuals who perpetrate extremist crimes in comparison to those who commit honor killings. Findings may inform forensic practices, including rehabilitation and prevention programs.

The purpose of this paper is to report on how honour-related violence (HRV) is understood and managed by professionals in Finland, emphasising the need to consider collectivity as an influential factor. Therefore, this paper introduces the concept of “collective violence”. By investigating the level of awareness and recognition of these violence phenomena, this paper discusses both preventative and punitive measures that Finnish authorities are able to work with.

A total of 111 Finnish anti-violence professionals completed a survey that aimed to qualitatively investigate their perceptions of HRV and collectivity.

The findings of this study indicated that collective violence is generally poorly recognised among professionals in Finland. At present, both victim services and criminal justice system lack adequate structures to deal with issues of collective violence. These findings indicate that authorities need further education on HRV and collectivity, as well as debates on whether the criminal code should be amended to meet international requirements.

As this violence has been researched only sporadically in the Finnish context, this study provides new insight to under-researched area of honour-related and collective violence in Finland. These findings may assist other European countries dealing with similar issues as well as guiding preventative and punitive measures within the Finnish context.

The Rome Statute, especially Article 7 on Crimes against Humanity, and the principle of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) apply to widespread violations of human rights that a State fails to prohibit or protect against. Yet far too little attention has been paid to systemic crimes that take the lives of many millions of women and girls every year. The purpose of this paper is to detail a proposal to use international law to hold governments and/or their agents accountable when they fail to protect the female half of humanity from widespread and egregious crimes of violence.

To accelerate the movement to make women's human rights a global priority, it examines: first, expanding the interpretation of the Rome statute, particularly Article 7 – Crimes against Humanity. Second, where necessary, amending the statute to include gender in addition to race and ethnicity.

Seven crimes and their personal, social, and economic consequences are analyzed, and legal remedies are detailed: selective female infanticide and denial to girl children of food and health care; the sex trade and sexual slavery; female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C); domestic violence (from murder in the name of honor and bride burning to acid throwing and battery); rape; child marriage and forced marriage.

This paper explores a new approach for use by scholars, attorneys, and human rights activists to end the global pandemic of violence against the female half of humanity by invoking the Rome Statute and/or amending it to protect women and girls. It provides a new legal and sociological analysis.

The purpose of this paper is to examine honor-related dilemmas that principals encounter in daily practice. Such dilemmas illustrate how special demands from parents can collide with the school's democratic mission.

–In total, 53 principals who participated in an in-service program, which aimed to enhance consciousness and knowledge concerning honor-related issues, were asked to describe their experiences of honor-related dilemmas. The paper uses the understanding of the honor culture as an analytic probe in studying and understanding the dilemmas and how these collide with the school's inner work in accordance with democratic values.

The major findings illustrate that the participating principals have to deal with honor-related issues in their daily practice. The dilemmas include parents’ demands for restrictions affecting girls, young women, boys, and young men from preschool up to adult education. These restrictions limit their right to participate in all school subjects and activities and to live a life free of oppression.

The paper reveals the importance of enhanced consciousness and knowledge concerning honor-related issues. Principals must have the ability to identify and recognize at-risk students and organize the necessary support for those students without stigma and exclusion. How the school's structure and culture support intercultural practice and inclusion is important to avoid a contribution to marginalization and a rejection of the school's value base.

A number of research studies have been done regarding culture clashes in the multicultural school context. This paper identifies dilemmas that can be related to the honor culture and how these are expressed in the principal's office.

A quasi‐experiment tested the effects of honor values and the use of insults by the other party on perceived conflict, negative emotions, and intentions to behave distributively and integratively during a workplace conflict. After honor values were measured, participants read a scenario in which a conflict was described. In the scenarios, we manipulated whether the other party used an insult by describing the other party's statements such that either an insult was uttered or no insult was uttered. Consistent with our hypotheses, results showed that conflicts in which the other party used an insult lead to higher ratings of perceived conflict, more negative emotions, and stronger intentions to engage in distributive behavior than conflicts in which the other party did not use an insult in high‐honor‐value participants, but not in low‐honor‐value participants. Mediation analyses showed that the interactive effect of honor values and other party's insults on intentions to behave distributively could be explained by perceived conflict and negative emotions.