NCJ Number
225516
Journal
International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice Volume: 32 Issue: 2 Dated: Fall 2008 Pages: 243-263
Date Published
2008
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This study considered the range of contexts in which “honor-based” violence against women occurs in the United Kingdom, but with a focus on its prevalence and effects for women in South-Asian communities.
Abstract
Although the study recognizes that there is no generally accepted definition of “honor-based” violence (HBV) against women, it notes some of its features. HBV pertains to the social, political and economic status of women as well as the values, beliefs, norms, and traditions that are used to justify violence against women accused of dishonorable behavior that requires violent punishment, including homicide. These are crimes against women perpetrated predominantly by men. Although there are no official statistics on honor killings in the United Kingdom, an incomplete survey of the cases that received coverage in the national media indicated that from 1998 through 2007, an average of 12 honor killings were reported to and investigated by the police each year. In examining the number of honor killings that have been prosecuted in the United Kingdom, almost all defendants--who are mostly from Pakistani, Sikh, and Kurdish backgrounds--offer a cultural defense, claiming that the victim had dishonored the family, so killing her was an obligation imposed by culture, tradition, and the community’s moral values. Throughout the 1990s, British judges accepted this cultural defense and imposed reduced sentences, usually for manslaughter instead of premeditated murder. Activists and scholars working in the British South-Asian feminist movement have raised concerns about the lack of commitment to an investment in systems for delivering specialist support services that would dramatically improve the lives of women and children subjected to VAW. Inequalities remain, however, both in terms of viewing it as a serious crime and promoting equality of access to justice through the appropriate allocation of resources. 3 notes and 39 references