Stalking and coercive control: Commonly used strategies in honour-based abuse against young people

Honour crime involves violence and abuse, including murder, committed by people who want to defend or restore the honour of an individual or a social group. The victims of this crime can be people of all genders and ages, but HBA against young women and girls is more common. HBA includes a range of harmful practices, from forced marriage to so-called honour killing. These practices are enforced through various abusive methods, including stalking, controlling, coercive, intimidating, or threatening. This chapter draws on primary and secondary research that discusses coercive control and stalking in honour-based abuse against young people in the UK. Family honour is, at its root, male honour, which works at different levels—in a social group or a community through the patriarchal honour system. The major aim of the system is to maintain male family members’ control over women and girls’ sexuality, body and behaviours. Thus, the perpetrators of honour abuse are the victims’ male family members. The families employ various methods to exercise power and control over young people, mainly girls, to maintain family honour. They often use coercive control in HBA because it is established without obvious violence against the victim. It often begins early in the family home and is embedded in socialisation, masked as obedience, discipline, and family duties according to family honour norms and values. Stalking actions are used to track the victims and their activities, in which coercive control is often used to maintain that control.