Honour Killings in Europe

Essay from the year 2013 in the subject Sociology - Law, Delinquency, Abnormal Behavior, grade: 5,2, Sheffield Hallam University (Criminology), language: English, abstract: In industrialised countries such as Germany and England the number of honour killings committed have increased (Schirrmacher, 2009). Cases in both countries have experienced large media attention and have been closely reported. The media in western countries tends to magnify differences especially from and to the Islamic world (Nelken 2010). Honour crimes and killings do not only occur in Eastern and Arab countries such as Pakistan Turkey or Iran etc., through globalisation and the increase of migration, honour killings have become an increasing problem in western countries as well (Schirrmacher, 2009). Continuing improvements of various means of transport and mobility has acquired a new dimension in the world of modernity (Garland, 2001). Globalisation is as Held (1999) writes, the widening deepening and speeding up of worldwide interconnections in all aspects of contemporary life. Honour killings are closely linked to globalisation and migration issues.

The most striking similarity between England and Germany is the total number of committed honour killings in the past few years. One can also find high resemblances in the convictions and sentences of perpetrator of honour killings. Despite these similarities the focus is to examine the cultural, social political and historical context of these high profile crimes in both countries.

The United Nation has published a response to crimes in the name of honour against women. In their last resolution from 2004 the UN expressed deep concerns that women and girls continue to be victims of honour based crimes. They remind states to exercise, to prevent, investigate and punish the perpetrators of such crimes committed against women and girls (UN, 2004). This comparative case study will focus on the state responses, which are required by the UN.

Therefore the examination will lay out the differences and similarities of state responses through legislations and police task forces and other law enforcements, how honour killings are recognised by the state in these two European countries. This examination will explore these responses within the cultural political social and historical context. In this project the focus is on honour killings, the extremist form of honour based violence and will undertake a comparison on how these two European countries respond to this violation of human rights in a broader context.