The Profiles of Victims, Perpetrators, and Unfounded Beliefs in Honor Killings in Turkey

Abstract

Despite Turkey's increasing awareness of honor killings, many unfounded beliefs and assumptions still pervade concerning the general profiles of victims, perpetrators, and the crimes committed. These erroneous views are predicated upon a plethora of weak generalizations rather than robust research evidence. Yet, such claims have a significant impact on both the regulations aiming to combat these killings and the working practices of the officers struggling to prevent their occurrence. By deploying a qualitative interview method, corroborated by court rulings and prison files, and reflecting views of prisoners who have committed murder in the name of honor (namus) in Turkey, the author, herein, attempts to construct a data-based description of honor killing.

An Exploratory Study of Honor Crimes in the United States

“…Compared to prior research, our findings indicated that motivations for honor crimes involving children have a broader range of justifications and were also more likely to involve fathers as the perpetrators (Doğan 2014a;Kulwicki 2002). The individuality associated with adolescence is unique to westernized post-industrial nations.…”

“…The findings from the current study indicated the motivation of the offense along with the relationship between the victim and offender must be considered since offenders murdered individuals in the name of honor outside their primary target. Overall, the characteristics of honor crimes in the United States maintain some similarities from documented international honor crimes (Doğan 2014a), but differences also emerged. It is hoped that future research continues to investigate this important area.…”

“…Consistent with honor crimes committed in Turkey, the number of victims exceeded the number of overall incidents (Doğan 2014a). Prior research has shown brothers and fathers are the primary perpetrators of Jordanian honor crimes (Kulwicki 2002), while there was more diversity in victim-offender relationships for Turkish honor crimes (Doğan 2014a).…”

“…Comparatively, brothers accounted for 60 % of honor crime perpetrators in Jordan (Kulwicki 2002). Doğan (2014a) has attempted to explain this discrepancy by looking to the shift in Turkish woman's honor from her birth family to her husband after marriage. The preliminary findings from this study also indicated about half of the perpetrators were the current or former intimate partner of the victim.…”

Kadin Ci̇nayetleri̇nde Semboli̇k İkti̇darin Kri̇zi̇

“…Weil'in (2016bWeil'in ( , s. 1126 belirttiği gibi, görünürlük sosyal bilimcilerin toplumsal olguları görüp görmediklerini, ya da nasıl gördüklerini, radikal bir biçimde şekillendirir. Kadınlara yönelen şiddetin ne ölçüde öldürücü boyutlara ulaştığını gözler önüne seren bu temsil biçimi, kadın cinayetlerini akademik bir görüş alanı içerisine taşımakta oldukça etkili olmuş gibi görünüyor: Son yıllarda, adli tıp (Ozgun Unal, Koc, Unal, Akcan, & Javan, 2016;Toprak & Ersoy, 2017), hukuk (Doğan, 2014), ruh sağlığı (Tosun Altınöz, Altınöz, Utku, Eşsizoğlu, & Candansayar, 2018) ve sosyoloji (Çetin, 2015;Taşdemir Afşar, 2016) gibi alanlardan çalışmalar Türkiye'de kadın cinayetlerinin farklı yönlerini mercek altına almaya başladı.…”