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Female Perpetration of Honour-Based Abuse

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Policing UK Honour-Based Abuse Crime

Abstract

This chapter explores the dimensions of abuse inflicted by women, specifically mothers, mothers-in-law and sisters. Abuse is categorised into six themes: violence; violence due to pregnancy; hard and soft psychological abuse; ostracism of victims; women being complicit and turning a “blind eye” to violence. Aplin establishes that mothers play a fundamental role in HBA perpetration. Despite violent acts by women being uncommon, mothers inflict 71.5% (10/14) of the acts of violence. A third of specialist police officers (5/15) had never investigated female perpetrators. Findings show officers failing to record female perpetration in 12% of cases. The extent to which women act under duress or are willing participants in abusing other women is examined. The chapter reconsiders whether professionals should automatically trust mothers to safeguard children.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Police officers a, b, c, d, g, f and h.

  2. 2.

    Cases 1, 3, 5, 14, 15, 16, 19, 31, 41, 73, 82 and 92.

  3. 3.

    Cases 8, 48, 52, 76, 81, 88 and 97.

  4. 4.

    Cases 10, 13, 17, 20, 26, 39, 61, 72, 84 and 93.

  5. 5.

    DASH is a risk identification, assessment and management model adopted by United Kingdom police forces and partner agencies in March 2009 and accredited by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) council (now NPCC). It is intended to cover cases of Domestic Abuse, Stalking, Harassment and Honour-based violence (DASH 2009). The DASH checklist comprises of 27 questions and provides staff with a practical tool to assist in the early risk identification and decide on the appropriate level of intervention for victims (high, medium, standard risk). There are an additional 10 questions specific to HBA.

  6. 6.

    Cases 5, 65, 67, 69, 70, 83, 87, 89, 95 and 100.

  7. 7.

    An “Osman warning” is given by police officers to intended victims to warn them of a threat to their life. This is derived from the case of R v. Osman 2000 in which the ECHR ruled that public bodies, such as the police, are under a positive obligation to take preventative operational measures to protect an individual when there is real and immediate risk to life from the criminal acts of others.

  8. 8.

    There was one case where the husband slapped his pregnant wife across the face, causing swelling and bruising to the eye (case 9). However, the pregnancy itself was not the trigger for the HBA.

  9. 9.

    Cases 13, 20, 22, 32, 39, 44, 45, 57, 74, 93 and 96.

  10. 10.

    Such findings not only show female involvement but support the contention that some honour killings in the UK and abroad may be disguised as accidents or suicides.

  11. 11.

    Cases 81, 96, 64 and 53, police officer c.

  12. 12.

    Originally devised in 1982 due to the Domestic Violence Intervention Project, Minnesota, USA.

  13. 13.

    Cases 2, 9, 30, 47 and 91.

  14. 14.

    Constant harassment by in-laws and husbands can also often push married women to commit suicide (Waters 1999 as cited in Rew et al. 2013; Cihangir 2013; House of Commons 2008).

  15. 15.

    Cases 37, 45, 46, 49, 60 and 66.

  16. 16.

    Cases 24, 32, 37, 45, 55, 60, 61, 66, 72, 94, 95 and 96.

  17. 17.

    There is some evidence of perpetrators threatening to burn down the house of those who harbour honour victims (cases 51, 37, 73).

  18. 18.

    Cases 12, 13, 17, 26, 27, 44, 58, 62, 64, 84, 87 and 89.

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Acknowledgements

Sincere gratitude goes to Senior Lecturer Nicola Groves for providing helpful insights regarding an earlier draft of this chapter.

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  1. Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, UK

    Rachael Aplin

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  1. Rachael Aplin
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Correspondence to Rachael Aplin .

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Aplin, R. (2019). Female Perpetration of Honour-Based Abuse. In: Policing UK Honour-Based Abuse Crime . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18430-8_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18430-8_6

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-18429-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-18430-8

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