“Honor”‐Based Violence

Abstract

In recent years, violence against women and girls committed in the name of “honor” has attracted increasing attention across the globe. Unfortunately, media accounts and policy discourses concerning “honor”‐based violence (HBV) and “honor” killings have principally viewed the problem through the lens of cultural essentialism: In other words, explanations have focused on the cultural (including religious) factors underlying HBV rather than examining HBV in the broader context of violence against women and girls (VAWG). VAWG is endemic across the whole of UK society, though different sociocultural and ethnic groups experience heightened rates of certain forms, like HBV. This entry identifies the norms, traditions, and values that underpin HBV as a specific form of VAWG. Culture, ethnicity, religion, and nationality contribute to the forms of VAWG that an individual may experience, but none of these factors is the sole or even main cause of this complex phenomenon.