Honor, Violence, and Children: A Systematic Scoping Review of Global Evidence

"This scoping review extends current scholarship to show how HBV-A [honour-related violence and abuse] is linked to a range of harms and negative consequences for children and young people, particularly girls, including physical, sexual, emotional violence and homicide, forced married, FGC [female genital cutting], and family rejection and control alongside social consequences."

Honour-based violence (HBV) refers to physical, sexual, or emotional violence or abuse that is conceptualised as a form of reputation management or social control to police and punish behaviours, often of women and girls, who transgress a local system of social, cultural, or religious norms. HBV encompasses a variety of violent acts against women, young people, and children, including murder or threats to kill, forced marriage, female genital cutting (FGC), control of movement and sexual activity, harassment, intimate partner violence, child abuse, rape, kidnapping, false imprisonment, and forced abortion. This scoping review (i) describes the contexts, research methods, and populations included in research on HBV and children, (ii) outlines conceptual and methodological approaches, including definitions of honour, and (iii) describes how honour-based practices affect children's experiences of violence.

In July 2019, the researchers searched seven databases, finding 7,122 unique records and selecting 468 of them for full-text review. In total, 101 articles were included. Most used qualitative methods (n = 58) followed by quantitative methods (n = 32). In most studies (n = 74) children, especially girls, were included as experiencing HBV or being a victim of homicide related to HBV. A smaller sample of studies (n = 24) included children, especially boys, as perpetrators of HBV. Across studies, HBV was most commonly perpetrated by fathers and community members as well as young boys, supported by community members and legal systems. However, several studies also highlighted how mothers either participated in or legitimising honour-related violence and abuse (HBV-A), such as by preventing help seeking or disclosure of HBV-A to protect male family members or to prevent further shame.

More than half the studies did not define honour. However, three interconnected themes emerged as central to definitions of honour. First, families and men played a role in the control of female honour. Second, the notion of reputation was also often part of how honour was defined. The third theme related to defining honour in terms of norms that were linked to patriarchy. Quantitative articles either relied on definitions of honour in violence or death reporting systems or used quantitative scales to measure honour (12 studies). For example, three studies used the Honor Ideology for Manhood Scale (HIM), which assessed whether respondents believe that a "real man" is tough and fearless and that a man has the right to respond aggressively under a variety of situations.

The most common focus in the studies included (n = 33 studies) was how children, particularly girls, experienced physical and emotional violence as a result of honour violations, or perceived violations, and were prevented from seeking help following violence. Two studies in Vietnam presented the nuances in how HBV-A shapes reporting of violence: One study described how a family chooses not to report their daughter's rape, and another study underscored how a family's decision to use public and legal channels can be an attempt to restore the family's social status and "protect our daughter's rights, to defend her honour".

The second most common theme (n = 20 studies) was how HBV-A produced forms of family rejection, control, or neglect, which often overlapped with emotional violence. Many studies describe the myriad ways in which girls anticipate HBV-A and change their behaviours for fear of honor loss and violence, remain in unwanted marriages, restrict their own mobility, or respond to violence with secrecy to protect their honour.

Other common themes included how honour was linked to the homicide of girls and young women (n = 18 studies) and how family honour (connected to the girl's honour) was a key reason for early marriage or forced marriage (n = 13 studies). Studies that examined links between HBV-A and FGC emphasised the role of FGC in purifying and preserving a girls honour and family honour and the shame associated with having a daughter who was not circumcised. Honour-related beliefs also shaped both the reporting of FGC and whether girls and families could oppose or prevent FGC.

Fourteeen studies did not examine violence or neglect but linked honour to other aspects of children's lives. For example, one study examined how ideas of family honour affected participation in a sports programme for girls in India. These studies showed that - even in cases where children were not harmed - honour served to structure behaviour, expectation, ideas of selfhood, moral codes, and interpersonal relationships, particularly with family members and communities.

In short, the harms to children documented in the studies "constitute a violation of child rights, and can affect children's physical and mental health in the short and long term".

Twenty-eight of the 101 studies offered recommendations for policy and practice, such as:

• Ensuring joined-up and integrated service delivery to support survivors;
• Using community accountability models to enhance community-based responses;
• Improving understanding of the socio-cultural and intersectional dimensions to violence;
• Improving relationships between specialist HBV/violence against women (VAW) organisations and police;
• Increasing funding and specialised services for survivors;
• The importance of the "best interests of the child" in responding to violence;
• Improving data surveillance and sharing and ensuring accurate collection of HBV data by ethnicity;
• Designing distinct services for HBV survivors separate to services for other types of violence;
• Ensuring appropriate training and sensitisation on HBV and appropriate responses to equip health workers to support young girls and boys;
• Involving health practitioners in advocacy initiatives, and incorporating gender equality and women's health issues into existing nursing education, practice, and research;
• Providing training (e.g., to police officers) on HBV, women's rights, and gender equality;
• Including educational content on culture to enable youth to critique and understand HBV;
• Establishing psychoeducational programmes for adolescents;
• Providing alternative values education to reframe group culture;
• Establishing adult education literacy programmes for parents;
• Supporting teachers to address discrimination between girls and boys at school;
• Raising awareness in the community about issues faced by girls;
• Supporting anger management programmes among youth;
• Using positive deviance models to bring about community change;
• Implementing preventative approaches to reduce violence among male adolescents;
• Conducting pre-marriage meetings with couples in collaboration with faith leaders;
• Using restorative justice approaches and taking holistic and structural approaches to address GBV instead of individual-level approaches;
• Positioning HBV in a survivor-centric framework that treats HBV as a risk management issue;
• Using the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) as the mechanism for combating sexual violence;
• Considering the unintended consequences of mandatory reporting;
• Positioning HBV as a form of violence against women instead of a cultural tradition;
• Using alternative language to "honour killing", which is stigmatising;
• Creating enabling environments that support reporting of violence;
• Changing laws on virginity testing and murder as a defence for HBV; and
• Improving gun control.

Key research gaps remain. The researchers found a limited number of studies from Sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia & Pacific, South Asia, and none from Latin America. They indicate that more research is needed that interviews children directly, including boys, that explores how children define honour, and that is co-led by young people. Further research should be intersectional and explicitly consider how HBV-A affects marginalised children. Studies that explore how to prevent and recover from HBV-A from multiple perspectives are also needed. "However, such research should only be conducted in the context of strong partnerships, deep contextual knowledge and if safeguarding and referral pathways are possible to fulfil the ethical responsibility to research participants."