There are an estimated 5,000 honor-based incidents in the UK every year. In the United States, more than 1,000 women and 300 men are killed every year in honor violence. Figures about the crime are often estimates, however, as many incidents go unreported or do not get officially recorded as ‘honor crime’. In the United States, the Department of Justice does not record the religion, ethnicity, age or immigration status of either victim or murderer, meaning that honor crime statistics are largely based on assumptions.
What is Honor Crime?
Honor crime or honor violence is a crime motivated by a desire to protect the honor of a family or community. An honor killing is when the victim is murdered by a family member fulfilling that desire. They may have felt the victim brought dishonour upon the family somehow, examples of which include wearing unacceptable clothes or engaging in some sexual acts. Honor killings are mostly associated with Muslim women, although some gay men and people with learning disabilities have emerged as being victims recently too.
Difficulty in Solving Honor Crimes in the West
In the UK, police have been accused of failing honor crime victims from violence, forced marriage, rape and murder. In some high profile cases, such as the murder of Banaz Mahmod in south London, the police came under fire for ignoring her cries for help in the months leading up to the killing. In response, the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) have launched new guidelines in an attempt to bring more honor crime offenders to justice. Every police officer in London will receive honor crime training and new guidance will advise them to record more cases as being honor crimes, even if there is only a small amount of evidence. The hope is that victims will be protected more quickly, preventing them from further violence, forced marriage and any other fate their family might have planned for them.
Some suggest that the reporting of and response to honor crime in the United States is lagging behind the European response, due to a fear of being accused of being insensitive to other cultures.
Honor Killings – Legal in Some Countries
Honor killings have been described as complicated, deeply rooted cultural practises and are known to occur across the world. As the act of honor killing can be interpreted as being entwined in a wider culture or religion, the laws surrounding honor crime vary depending on the country concerned.
In Jordan, the law is interpreted to mean that men are allowed to kill their female relatives either in a pre-meditated way, or as a crime of passion (in flagrante delicto) if the relative has committed adultery.
In Syria, Morocco, Brazil, Colombia, and more than sixty other countries in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America, men are permitted to kill female relatives in honor killings, as long as it was a crime of passion and not pre-meditated.
Honor killing is not legal in other countries, but is still known to happen in them – widely in certain countries.
Honor Suicides
In some countries, notably Turkey, ‘honor suicides’ have started to emerge, whereby women are apparently ordered to commit suicide by family members. It is thought that the families in countries where honor crime is illegal use this method to avoid the strict penalties imposed on those committing honor killings.
