The police response
The number often quoted as the ‘official’ statistic for honour based murders is 10-12 per year. But some senior detectives believe this number is a fantasy.
DCI Caroline Goode who investigated the murder of Banaz Mahmod said: “I don’t know where that number came from, but it was bandied around by a former commander. I think the actual figure is probably much higher.” One of the challenges facing those trying to stop honour based violence is actually being able to identify it as such.
Hallmarks
Police officers with experience in investigating honour based violence have identified a number of hallmarks or trends, such as a family meeting having taken place around the time of the murder, which can be used by other investigators to “flag up” a suspected honour crime.
The murder of Surjit Atwal took nine years to prosecute as various measures were taken by the perpetrators and their family to disrupt the investigation. Surjit’s husband Sukhdave and his mother Bachan, went to extraordinary lengths to obstruct the progress of the investigation.
They had forged letters claiming to be sent from the Metropolitan Police to the police in the Punjab, urging them to cease their investigation into the murder. Similarly, the murderer of Tulay Goren was not successfully charged until nearly a decade after the crime took place.
In this instance DCI Goode believes it was a general better understanding of honour based violence that facilitated more effective policing and prosecution. She says that with a new understanding of how the murder happened, the police were able to again present the case to the CPS, with “not a lot of new evidence” and secure a prosecution.
Historical justice
DCI Clive Driscoll was the Senior Investigating Officer in charge of the Surjit Atwal case says the fact that a crime is historical doesn’t make the perpetrators safe from justice he said: “Most of the cases I investigate are historical, we’ve prosecuted people after 10, 15, even 20 years, so if there’s anyone out there thinking they have got away with it might be just because we haven’t got enough evidence together yet to prosecute them.”
DCI Goode believes the fact that these cases were eventually solved demonstrates that lessons have been learned and that there has been an overall improvement in the way these crimes are investigated and prosecuted. DCI Driscoll is also insistent that “lots of improvement” has taken place, but some within the Met are far more critical.
Cultural sensitivity
Metropolitan Police Homicide detective DI Mukhtiar Singh believes cultural sensitivities are hampering the Met’s ability to tackle honour crimes. He said: “We live in a world where with any kind of criticism of communities you get labelled with racism.”
DCI Driscoll said: “I don’t think there’s any doubt that in some of the cases I’ve investigated we’ve tried really hard to prove we’re not racist. The main thing is the integrity of the investigation. I think there have been cases where we’ve held back in fear of the perception of us as racist.”
However DI Singh believes that racism itself does exist within the force and is also detrimental to the fight against honour based violence, he said: “There’s a feeling that this isn’t a problem we want to take seriously, it’s only their own killing their own. There are two separate issues. One of political correctness and one of institutional racism.”
How to prevent?
Metropolitan Police Sikh Association chairman DC Pal Singh says the suggestion that the police must reach out to community and religious leaders is “big bollocks” and insists that “robust policing” is needed instead, “it’s not a community matter it’s a police matter, religious leaders will smile politely then show you the door after the seventh cup of tea.”
However other police forces have embraced the idea, DI Pete Williams of Leicestershire Constabulary says he has had “varying levels of success in appealing to religious authorities and community elders."
DI Williams said: “We’ve worked closely with young people to sell the message to the people who are predominantly affected with religious leaders and community elders to try and get the change happening from within.”
The Metropolitan Police and other forces across the country employ varying levels of training and staff to deal with HBV but none has a specialist unit.
Neither is there a national standard for which department deals with honour based violence, for instance the Met Police assign officers from their Homicide and Serious Crime and Specialist Crime directorate to investigate cases, whereas Leicestershire Constabulary relies on its Domestic Violence team.
Specialist unit
Those who are in support of establishing a specialist unit argue that the complexities of identifying and effectively investigating it an honour killing, call for specially trained, dedicated officers, who can recognise the “hallmarks” associated with the crimes as well as the requirement to understand the cultural mechanisms behind it.
Pal Singh said: “There doesn’t appear to be any hunger or desire to set up specialist units, I would advocate teams of officers with commitment, specialist knowledge and a good CV of what they’ve done to tackle these crimes.”
Clive Driscoll believes detective should instead recruitexperts to assist, he said: “If you just specialise in a particular subject you tend to lose your skills in all the others, I don’t think the police need to specialise, I think we need to call on specialists.”