“Honour”-based violence in a British South Asian community

Abstract

Purpose 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. Design/methodology/approach 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). Findings 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. Originality/value 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.

Attitudes toward intimate partner “honor”-based violence in India, Iran, Malaysia and Pakistan

“…A study of British South Asians (a majority of Indian and Pakistani origin), found that while a comparably small percentage supported using HBV against a female, if she had dishonored her family, about one-fifth (18%) of both males and females agreed that HBV was justifiable for disobeying her father (8%), marrying someone unacceptable (7%) or wanting to end her marriage (7%) (ComRes, 2012). While significant gender differences were not reported in this and other studies with comparable diasporic British Asians populations (e.g., Khan, Saleem, & Lowe, 2017), they do indicate that in collectivist communities that have migrated from Asia, there is a degree of acceptance for using HBV against females who break honor-codes (Brandon u r n a l o f A g g r e s s i o n , C o n f l i c t a n d P e a c e R e s e a r c h 10 & Hafez, 2010). This has wide-reaching implications for the perpetuation of intimate partner HBV globally (Hayes, Freilich, & Chermak, 2016).…”

Police Understandings of and Responses to a Complex Vignette of “Honour”-Based Crime and Forced Marriage

“…These professionals and the police have been criticized for their adherence to stereotypes, inadequate responses, and failure to protect vulnerable victims (Keeping, 2012;Korteweg & Yurdakul, 2010;MacIntosh & Keeping, 2012). In addition, research has shown that victims experiencing HBV and FM are likely to run away, to self-harm, or to attempt suicide, demonstrating the severe implications of HBC (Belfrage et al, 2012;Chantler, 2012;Chantler et al, 2009;Chantler & McCarry, 2020;Hague et al, 2013;Jiwani, 2014;Khan, 2018;Khan et al, 2018).…”

“…Law enforcement agencies need to be prepared to respond adequately to victims who come forward to report their HBC experiences. Some researchers, mainly in the United Kingdom, have examined victim and survivor interactions with police and encouraged the improvement of services to ensure safety from HBV (Gill et al, 2012;Idriss, 2018;Khan et al, 2018) and FM (Idriss, 2018). While strategies have been implemented in the United Kingdom to assess risk, train police officers, raise public awareness, and collect national police data to support victims of HBC, police remain inconsistent in responding to HBV (Gill & Harrison, 2016;Idriss, 2018) and scholars continue to focus on the need to improve the criminal justice system response (Gill, 2009;Gill et al, 2012;Hague et al, 2013;Hall, 2014).…”

“…While strategies have been implemented in the United Kingdom to assess risk, train police officers, raise public awareness, and collect national police data to support victims of HBC, police remain inconsistent in responding to HBV (Gill & Harrison, 2016;Idriss, 2018) and scholars continue to focus on the need to improve the criminal justice system response (Gill, 2009;Gill et al, 2012;Hague et al, 2013;Hall, 2014). Existing scholarship has focused on the variations in victims' and survivors' lived experiences of HBV (Gill et al, 2018;Khan et al, 2018;Withaeckx & Coene, 2014), FM (Chantler et al, 2009;Chantler & McCarry, 2020;Esthappan et al, 2018;Gill et al, 2018;Jaspal, 2014;Samad, 2010). Interviews with women impacted by these acts of violence help us better understand the experience of reporting them to the police, whose responses vary unpredictably and may even do further harm (Gill et al, 2018;Idriss, 2018;Mulvihill et al, 2019).…”

Using a Vignette in Qualitative Research to Explore Police Perspectives of a Sensitive Topic: “Honor”-Based Crimes and Forced Marriages

“…A number of attitudinal studies have also employed a range of hypothetical scenarios on threats to transgressions of "honor" codes, FM, homosexuality, infidelity, and "honor"based killings (HBKs). Much of the existing research has been carried out with university students and the public, mainly to explore male and female perceptions compared to individualistic versus collectivistic cultural attitudes toward "honor"based violence (HBV) and HBKs around the world (Caffaro et al, 2014(Caffaro et al, , 2016Dietrich & Schuett, 2013;Khan et al, 2018;Lowe et al, 2018Lowe et al, , 2019Mosquera et al, 2002;Shaikh et al, 2010;Vandello & Cohen, 2003). Most of these studies used a factorial vignette design (Hughes & Huby, 2004), where participants answered questions using Likert-type scales.…”