The number of so-called “honour-based” crimes, associated with some Islamic cultures, has risen by over 60 per cent in England over the past two years, according to an analysis of police data.
A report from the left-wing Guardian newspaper, based on figures from 26 of the 39 constabularies in England, found that in 2022 there were 2,594 instances of “honour-based” crimes, including assaults, death threats, female genital mutilation, forced marriages, and rapes.
This is compared to 1,599 cases recorded in 2020, an increase of 62.2 per cent in just two years. The increase in the number of so-called honour crimes is even more stark when compared to 2016, with a rise of 193 per cent seen over the six-year period.
The Guardian pointed to more victims coming forward and enhanced police tactics for the rise, although the paper noted that “other factors are also believed to be at work”.
The report highlighted claims that the rise may have been a result of geopolitical trends, with Family Law Company director Imran Khodabocus telling the paper: “In cases like this, you can’t minimise the impact of global political and social issues. In my experience, some people are becoming more rigid in their thinking and this is creating more instances where they feel they must defend their, or their families’, honour.”
Khodabocus added that the rise in the figures rang true with his experience in dealing with the issue of honour-based crimes, which he said are “not just rising, but getting more severe”.
The specialist honour-based abuse solicitor went on to highlight the delays in family courts as perpetuating the issue, saying that many of his cases “are taking at least nine to 12 months to be resolved, leaving families and particularly children in a vulnerable position.”
In a tacit admission of the role that mass migration is having on the number of honour crimes, Khodabocus said that one of the cause of the delays in the system was a result of a lack of court language interpreters.
During the same time highlighted by the Guardian report on the rise of honour crimes, Britain saw one of its most significant periods of mass migration in the history of the country, with net migration hitting a record high in 2022 at an estimated 745,000 and a further 672,000 in net migration in 2023.
According to the 2021 census, with the exception of atheism, Islam saw the largest growth over the previous ten years, with a 44 per cent rise from 2.7 million to 3.9 million seen between 2011 and 2021. The census found that Muslims now account for 6.5 per cent of the population of England and Wales, compared to 2.9 per cent just twenty years prior.
A 2015 report from the Henry Jackson Society counter-extremism think tank found that honour-based violence was most prevalent in South Asian communities in Britain, which are dominated by followers of Islam, Hinduism, and Sikhism.
The anti-honour crime charity Karma Nirvana has also noted that such crimes are “more prevalent within communities from South Asia, the Middle East, and North and East Africa”.
In the report, the areas of England which saw the most instances of honour-based crimes were in the multicultural major cities, with London, Greater Manchester, and Birmingham topping the list.
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