Honour-Based Violence is not Domestic Violence
There are three things that set Honour-Based Violence (HBV) apart from racialized domestic violence: premeditation, group complicity, and community approbation.
Premeditation
Domestic violence is often marked by loss of executive function due to alcohol consumption or drug use.
HBV is always premeditated.
Group Complicity
The criminal law frames requires that the actus reus and mens rea of each offence belong to the same accused.
By comparison, even if HBV is committed by an individual, but it is planned, or ratified by a group.
Community Approbation
Most anti-social behaviours are met with disapprobation by the larger community.
That is not the case with HBV, in which the community may feel that the victim brought it on themself.
Defining Honour-Based Violence
Honour-based violence is:
- Escalating violence
- By a group
- Against dissenting/defecting members
- Whose beliefs or behaviours
- Present an existential threat to the socio-economic structure of the group.
There are a number of other criteria that contribute to the higher risk of fatality in HBV cases:
Escalating
Honour-based violence sometimes ends in murder, but it does not start there.
It starts with persuasion...
Then moves on to coercion...
Which escalates to violence.
Help-seeking victims know the danger because they see the escalation.
Entitativity
HBV is a group crime, even when a single actor commits the criminal act.
There is an identifiable social group or family group that claims the target as a member.
It is this perceived membership that leads the groups to believe it can make demands on the target.
Dissenting Members
Honour-based violence is the silencing of dissenting/defecting members who refuse to conform to group norms.
The Black Sheep Effect is when there are higher standards of behaviour for group members than for non-members.
Beliefs/Behaviours
It can be either the beliefs or the behaviours of the target that threaten the group.
The group need not be accurate in its assumptions. It may act on the perceived beliefs or behaviours of the target, depending on the nature of the threat.
Existential Threat
Something about the target threatens to disrupt the social structure of the group.
It may be that the core reason for the existence of the group will dissipate, or it may be that the group leadership will be toppled.
Either way, the group and its leadership have something specific to lose if the threat persists.
Advanced Persistent Threat
Most current protective services designed by domestic violence cases, in which the identity of the potential attacker and the vector of attack are both known.
Because HBV is planned by a group, the identity of the attacker, and the vector of the attack may both be unknown.
Canada
The following are timelines of Candian cases.
Aqsa Parvez (16)
Aqsa was the youngest of eight children. She wanted an education and a career instead of a marriage. She was strangled to death in her family home.
dec
2007
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