Abstract
The Black Lives Matter social movement has once again raised important societal issues around structural and racial inequalities. These issues stem from our political and social structures, which are argued to be a continuance of colonial rule and which allow injustice to amplify. There are many who continue to suffer and are often overlooked, namely victims of domestic abuse within the South Asian community. The Domestic Abuse Bill (DAB) is currently going through the Parliamentary process. It is argued that the DAB is flawed due to an absence of provisions and support for minority ethnic groups, namely the South Asian community. Previous scholarly research has documented the prevalence of honour-based abuse within the South Asian community. Despite the unique nature of abuse, this is not acknowledged in the DAB. The purpose of this paper is to uncover the unique experiences of domestic abuse within the South Asian community by thematically analysing two Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs). The findings will be discussed using aspects of ultra-realism, namely special liberty, and benign neglect. These findings will form the basis of reasoning behind amendment suggestions for the DAB. Following the thematic analysis of the two DHRs and critical literature review, three recommendations were formed: 1) Removal of ‘No Recourse to Public Funds’, thus providing funding to all, despite immigration status; 2) Provide education to police officers and GPs regarding domestic abuse and how it often differs depending on culture, namely the South Asian community; and 3) Implement neighbourhood committees across Britain that have a working relationship with the police to identify cases of domestic abuse within this South Asian demographic.
Highlights
The Black Lives Matter social movement has once again raised important societal issues around structural and racial inequalities
This paper argues that domestic abuse victims within the South Asian community are amongst those who continue to suffer from the effects and are often overlooked
Domestic abuse occurs amongst all communities (Whitehead et al, 2013), research has shown there are acts of abuse that are prevalent in the South Asian community, such as honour killings, forced marriages, and normalisation of patriarchal violence (Gill, 2004; Dyer, 2015; Chowbey, 2017)
Summary
The definition chosen is from the DAB. Once this Bill has proceeded through the Parliamentary procedure, this will be the standardised definition. Their own definition, a criticism of this is that it is overly simplistic, which does not provide an accurate account of domestic abuse. The chosen definition used within this paper is as follows: Any incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive, threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between those aged 16 or over who are, or have been, intimate partners or family members regardless of gender or sexual orientation. The abuse can encompass but is not limited to psychological; physical; sexual; economic; emotional. (Home Affairs Committee, 2018: 8) This definition acknowledges forms of domestic abuse other than the physical element, including psychological, sexual, economic, and emotional. This paper will refer throughout to contemporary neo-liberalism, which is defined as follows, The defining features of neoliberalism include economic liberalisation policies such as privatisation, austerity, deregulation, free trade, and reductions in government spending in order to increase the role of the private sector in the economy and society
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