Abstract
The United Nations defines harmful practices as: ‘… persistent practices and behaviours grounded on discrimination on the basis of sex, gender and age and other grounds as well as multiple and/or intersecting forms of discrimination that often involve violence and cause physical and/or psychological harm or suffering’. They are commonly perceived to be based on tradition, culture, custom and practice, religion and/or superstition, and in certain communities and societies these practices have been established for so long that they are considered or perceived to be part of accepted cultural norms. Where they have gone unchallenged for multiple generations, they have become ‘normalised’, which often makes it difficult to make the distinction between cultural/traditional norms and enforced harmful and controlling behaviour. Examples of harmful practices include, but are not limited to, female genital mutilation, honour-based abuse, forced marriage, dowry violence and abuse linked to faith and belief, such as witchcraft, possessions and breast ironing – all of which are practiced and are prevalent in the UK today. The focus of this paper is honour based abuse (HBA), which is often applied as a precursor to other harmful practices and which lends itself to highlighting the intersectionality of this largely gendered practice. The role of affected communities is explored, as is how this can lead to a culture of self-policing. A panoptic framework is adopted before conclusions are drawn as to the future of policing in addressing these hidden harms. The aim of this paper is not to provide a comprehensive critical analysis of policing responses to an ever evolving and highly complex crime type, nor is it to present all BAME women and communities as a homogeneous group, but rather to further explore some of the key concepts that arose from discussions and which may go some way to understanding hidden harms that exist in relation to honour and shame.
Highlights
It is important to acknowledge the emergence of harmful practices, as they are multidimensional and involve enforced, stereotyped, gender-based roles
Debates and consultations continue to exist as to changing the terminology to reflect a universal consensus that there is no honour in honour based abuse, it is of less significance what professionals or
The HMICFS 2015 inspection of the police response to honour based violence, forced marriage and female genital mutilation resulted in the publication of ‘The depths of dishonour: Hidden voices and shameful crimes’ report. This was the first time all 43 forces were inspected in relation to harmful practices and, whilst the findings were less than adequate, it called for the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) and College of Policing to work together and actualise the report’s recommendations, and acknowledged the role of public sector agencies and international law enforcers to identify and safeguard victims and survivors
Summary
It is important to acknowledge the emergence of harmful practices, as they are multidimensional and involve enforced, stereotyped, gender-based roles. Whilst not a new concept, the term honour violence, or honour based abuse, remains widely contentious amongst academics, researchers, practitioners and the UK Government This is, in part, due to the view that using such terms lends itself to creating a separatist paradigm of ‘them’ being from practicing communities and ‘us’ being British society as a whole. Whilst in western societies the term honour widely reflects a sense of pride and showing of respect to someone or something based on courageous achievements, actions or beliefs, in a cultural context, the notion of ‘honour’ broadly refers to a collection of beliefs and practices that are used to control behaviours in order to protect or maintain the positive status of a family or community, and is something that must be upheld at all times in order to be ‘validated’ and be viewed as ‘respectable’.
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