Defence Of Honour Research Articles

Murder in a Landscape: The Significance of the Death of Henry Flackett in the Staffordshire Moorlands in 1515

ABSTRACT The history of crime offers us insights into private vengeance, community cohesion, social tensions, the defence of honour and property disputes. Henry Flackett of Stanshope in Alstonefield, Staffordshire, was killed by three assailants known to him in 1515, provoked by a contested heap of manure. A combination of sources provides an unusually vivid and detailed picture of the crime, in which gentry honour played a part, provoking an attempt to enforce the law through the conventional channels of inquest, common law, and equity courts. The event is set in the context of the society, economy and landscape of the Staffordshire Moorlands in a period of agrarian change.

Book review: Sabyasachi Dasgupta, In Defence of Honour and Justice: Sepoy Rebellions in the Nineteenth Century

Sabyasachi Dasgupta, In Defence of Honour and Justice: Sepoy Rebellions in the Nineteenth Century, Primus Books, Delhi, 2015, x + 143 pp., ₹795 (Hardback).

The massacre mentality and school rampage shootings in the United States: Separating culture from psychopathology

AbstractSchool rampage shootings in the United States are becoming a common occurrence. The purpose of this article is place school rampage shooting in a broader cultural context. Specifically, in this article, I introduce the concept of the “massacre mentality” as a cultural manifestation of western and southern U.S. values. The massacre mentality is a state of mind in which the individual feels justified in committing indiscriminate killings in defence of honour, protection of property, assurance of absolute personal safety, or the elimination of challenges to the “natural order” from the perspective of the offender. A review of the social psychological literature will contrast the massacre mentality with related concepts of “culture of honour” and “sanctioned massacre.” The relationship between street violence, another major form of violence, and the massacre mentality is also addressed. A cultural analysis suggests that interactions between individual psychology in the form of U.S. regional values and sociocultural context of schools contribute to school rampage shootings more often than mental illness. The prevention of school rampage shootings will require the identification of students predisposed to adopt the values contributing to the massacre mentality and challenging social hierarchies by restructuring the context of schools, as well as changing cultural norms in the broader society. The ultimate goal is to create a U.S. culture where the massacre mentality is obsolete.

Book Review: Sabyasachi Dasgupta, In Defence of Honour and Justice: Sepoy Rebellions in the Nineteenth Century

Sabyasachi Dasgupta, In Defence of Honour and Justice: Sepoy Rebellions in the Nineteenth Century (New Delhi: Primus Books), 2015, pp. x + 143, ₹ 79, ISBN: 978-93-84082-06-2.

In defence of honour

In defence of honour

Honour and Violence Against Women in a Modern Shar'i Discourse

AbstractIn 2005, against the background of increased internal as well as external violence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the Chief Islamic Justice of the Palestinian Authority made a public intervention against 'murder as revenge or in defence of honour'. This article considers the intervention in light of the jurisprudential, legislative and social arguments it invokes, and examines both commonalities and differences in the Qadi al-Qudah's discourse and the position taken by women's rights activists on this particular form of violence against women.

Intrafamily femicide in defence of honour: The case of Jordan

This article deals with the issue of honour killings, a particular type of intrafamily femicide in defence of honour in Jordan. The legal, social, religious, nationalist and tribal dimensions and arguments on such killings are presented. Drawing on Arabic and English source material the role of rumour, social values and other dynamics in normalising this practice in Jordan today is analysed. Honour killings, which contradict many international and national laws and covenants, are clearly connected to the subordination of women in Jordan and to the 'criming down' of domestic violence. The prevailing discriminatory culture cannot change without implementing a comprehensive programme for socio-legal and political reform.