Charity voices concern after drop in ‘honour-based’ abuse offences reported in Northamptonshire

Police saw a fall in so-called honour-based abuse (HBA) offences across Northamptonshire last year – despite an increase across England and Wales.

Karma Nirvana, a charity supporting victims, says more work needs to be done to ensure victims feel safe enough to report honour-based abuse.

Police consider HBA an incident or crime involving violence, threats of violence, intimidation, coercion or abuse which has been committed to “protect or defend the honour of an individual, family or community” for perceived breaches of the family or community’s code of behaviour.

Recent Government figures showed 2,887 HBA crimes were recorded in England and Wales in the year to March 2022, up six percent from 2,725 the previous year.

Northamptonshire saw 34 of these offences in 2021-22, down from 57 the year prior.

A Northamptonshire Police spokeswoman, said: “Honour-based abuse is an appalling crime that is often perpetrated by family members or relatives for whom people should be able to trust the most.

“This makes it a really difficult crime to report.

“We want to send a clear message to anyone suffering from this type of abuse, that we are here and always will be here, ready to listen and treat your report with the confidentiality and sensitivity it deserves.

“We will believe you, we will support you and we will do everything we can to help you.

“Honour-based abuse has no place in Northamptonshire and anyone committing these offences will be brought to justice.”

The Home Office began collecting police data on HBA offences in April 2019 with 2,024 offences recorded in the first year. Data from 2019-20 excludes Greater Manchester Police due to IT issues and does not provide a breakdown by police force.

Excluding Greater Manchester Police, there has been a 25 percent rise in HBA offences reported in two years.

Ann Bonner, Karma Nirvana analyst, said many victims suffer from more than one type of HBA at the hands of multiple perpetrators, which creates further barriers in reporting to the police.

Ms Bonner added: “We are encouraged to see a slight increase in the recording of offences involving so-called ‘honour-based’ abuse recorded by the police in England and Wales.”

The Home Office said it recognised HBA is a “hidden crime” and victims can be reluctant to bring the abuse to the attention of police.

It added: “These data, therefore, are likely to only represent a small proportion of the actual HBA offences committed in year ending March 2022.”

Honour-based abuse can include female genital mutilation and forced marriage – in the last year, 68 HBA-related FGM offences and 117 HBA-related forced marriage offences were logged by police in England and Wales.

Two years ago, 74 FGM offences and 140 forced marriage offences were recorded excluding Greater Manchester Police.

Ms Bonner said “there is still so much to be done” to encourage victims coming forward, adding: “A lot of the victims are worried about repercussions from perpetrators and mistrust the police because they don't feel they are going to be believed.”

She added the charity works with police to train them in identifying HBA when they have been contacted about other crime, especially domestic abuse.