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What is honour based abuse?
Honour based abuse is a pattern of controlling, threatening, or violent behaviour used to protect or restore a family’s or community’s idea of “honour”. It can happen when someone is seen as bringing shame on the family through their choices, behaviour, relationships, or identity.
This abuse is not about honour in any genuine sense. It is about power, control, and enforcing strict expectations, often through fear and punishment.
Why is it used?
The main purpose of honour based abuse is to make a person comply with family or community expectations. It may be used to stop someone from making their own decisions about education, relationships, marriage, dress, or lifestyle.
Perpetrators may believe they are protecting family reputation. In reality, they are often using abuse to control another person and limit their freedom.
Who is targeted?
Honour based abuse can affect women and girls, but men and boys can also be victims. It may be directed at people who are believed to be too “Western”, too independent, or not following expected cultural or religious rules.
LGBTQ+ people can also be targeted if their identity is seen as bringing shame. In some cases, abuse begins when a person resists forced marriage, rejects family control, or seeks help outside the family.
What forms can it take?
Honour based abuse can include emotional abuse, threats, physical violence, isolation, coercion, and forced marriage. It may also involve being monitored, prevented from leaving the house, or having contact with friends and support services restricted.
In the most serious cases, it can lead to kidnapping, assault, rape, or so-called honour killings. Even where physical violence is not present, the fear and pressure can be severe and long-lasting.
What is the impact on victims?
The purpose of honour based abuse is often to break a person’s confidence and force obedience. Victims may feel trapped between fear of abuse and fear of losing their family, home, or community.
This can lead to anxiety, depression, isolation, and trauma. It can also affect a person’s ability to study, work, access healthcare, or build a safe independent life.
Why does it matter in the UK?
Honour based abuse is a serious safeguarding issue in the UK and can happen in any community. It is illegal, and victims have the right to protection and support.
Understanding its purpose helps challenge the myths around culture and honour. At its core, honour based abuse is about controlling people, not preserving values.
Frequently Asked Questions
The purpose of honour based abuse purpose is to describe why this issue is identified, reported, prevented, and addressed, including protecting people from harm, improving awareness, and supporting safe responses from services and communities.
Honour based abuse purpose is important because it helps explain the reasons for intervention, safeguarding, education, and support, so that victims can be protected and harmful behaviour can be challenged effectively.
The target audience for honour based abuse purpose includes survivors, family members, professionals, community leaders, educators, health workers, police, and anyone involved in safeguarding or support services.
Honour based abuse purpose is used in safeguarding to guide risk assessment, identify warning signs, inform referrals, coordinate multi-agency responses, and reduce the chance of further harm.
In prevention work, honour based abuse purpose means understanding the motivations, social pressures, and harmful beliefs behind the abuse so organisations can reduce risk and stop it before it happens.
Honour based abuse purpose can help victims and survivors by ensuring services focus on safety, dignity, confidentiality, trauma-informed support, and access to legal, medical, and emotional assistance.
Honour based abuse purpose plays a role in education by helping schools, colleges, and training providers teach about healthy relationships, consent, coercion, safeguarding, and how to seek help safely.
Honour based abuse purpose supports professional training by giving workers a clear understanding of indicators, cultural sensitivity, risk factors, reporting routes, and the correct safeguarding response.
Signs linked to honour based abuse purpose can include control, isolation, threats, forced marriage pressure, monitoring, restrictions on movement, and fear of family or community retaliation.
Honour based abuse purpose differs from general domestic abuse because it is often connected to family or community notions of honour, making the coercion, threats, and involvement of multiple people more complex.
Services relevant to honour based abuse purpose include safeguarding teams, police, social services, specialist charities, domestic abuse services, mental health support, housing providers, and legal advice services.
Honour based abuse purpose relates to risk assessment by helping professionals identify severity, escalation, patterns of control, threats of forced marriage or violence, and the need for urgent protection.
The legal purpose of honour based abuse purpose is to support recognition of criminal behaviour, inform investigations, guide protective measures, and ensure victims can access justice and safety under the law.
Honour based abuse purpose can improve reporting by helping victims and professionals understand what to report, how to document concerns, and how to share information safely with the right agencies.
The community purpose of honour based abuse purpose is to raise awareness, challenge harmful norms, encourage bystander action, and promote environments where people can seek help without shame or fear.
Honour based abuse purpose connects to confidentiality because victims may face serious danger if their situation is disclosed, so services must handle information carefully and share it only when necessary for safety.
Honour based abuse purpose matters for young people because they may be especially vulnerable to family pressure, isolation, forced marriage, and control, and they need clear routes to confidential support.
Honour based abuse purpose can guide policy development by helping organisations create procedures for prevention, early identification, safe referrals, staff training, and coordinated responses to protect those at risk.
Support available under honour based abuse purpose may include emergency safety planning, refuge accommodation, counselling, advocacy, legal protection, immigration advice, and help from specialist support organisations.
Honour based abuse purpose can be explained to the public as the reason systems exist to prevent coercion, violence, and control linked to so-called honour, and to protect people’s rights, safety, and freedom.
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