The depths of dishonour: Hidden voices and shameful crimes - An inspection of the police response to honour-based violence, forced marriage and female genital mutilation

Published on: 8 December 2015

Publication types: Female genital mutilation, Forced marriage and Honour-based violence

Police Forces: All local forces in England and Wales

Summary

Honour-based violence (HBV) is the term used to refer to a collection of practices used predominantly to control the behaviour of women and girls within families or other social groups in order to protect supposed cultural and religious beliefs, values and social norms in the name of ‘honour’. HBV incidents and crimes include specific types of offence, such as forced marriage and female genital mutilation, and acts which have long been criminalised, such as assault, rape and murder. Throughout this report, we use HBV to refer to the full range of incidents and crimes which perpetrators carry out under the guise of maintaining or protecting perceived ‘honour’.

This is the first HMIC inspection to focus on HBV. Our findings are set out in the report, which also contains recommendations for the Home Office, the National Police Chiefs Council, chief constables, and the College of Policing.

HMIC has also published the results of a research project, which includes the first-hand experiences of victims of HBV. This research was carried out by the University of Bristol and in collaboration with the University of Roehampton, on behalf of HMIC.