The so called crimes of honour have been tagged as crimes motivated by the deep sense of honour felt by the perpetrators and those who combat such crimes as libertines who want to change society and destroy its moral underpinnings.
Such a sentiment has curtailed many past efforts aimed at reducing the incidence of the crime by treating it simply as a crime like any other. However, a recent study in Jordan shows that such crimes are motivated, reared and bred in environments that suffer from high poverty incidence, lack of education and human empowerment, and economic vulnerability of both victim and perpetrator. Renaming these crimes more aptly as crimes of poverty would be one way to fight for the lives of their primary victims, Jordanian women.
The study I am referring to has been conducted as part of a project sponsored by the European Commission in partnership with the Information and Research Centre (IRC) of the King Hussein Foundation, Mafraq Centre for Development, Economic Research and Analysis, and the Jordan Centre for Social Research; I tackled the economic aspects of the study, assisted by the able staff of the IRC.
It is important to note that over the past decade, attempts to garner support for the study had failed and here comes the very important role of the IRC and EC, whose prestige and credibility gave legitimacy to the study proposal.
Utilising court files, statements by perpetrators and official numbers, the number of "honour crimes", and economic profiles of victims and perpetrators have been delineated. Such profiles tell a story different from those using old approaches, since the focus was the factors contributing to the economic well-being of the victims and perpetrators.
According to official figures, 102 honour crimes were committed from 2000 to February 2009. The study utilised official figures to avoid criticism regarding the accuracy of the numbers. At the same time, it is important to underscore that these numbers are fewer than the actual numbers, but the credibility of the data had to be ensured.
Of the 102 crimes, 91 were committed against women, which were the focus of the study.
Thirty-one interviews were conducted at various correctional and rehabilitation facilities in Jordan where some of the perpetrators of the crime are currently incarcerated.
Over half of the crimes were conducted in the central region of Jordan where 53 per cent of the poor reside. Furthermore, it was noted that the number of these crimes was on the rise in recent years and tended to rise as the economic growth rates worsened. Thus, the crime bore a stronger relationship with poverty in terms of regional distribution than rural or tribal distributions, as thought earlier.
The majority (81 per cent) of victims were youth under the age of 30; 92 per cent of the victims had education levels that were high school or less; only 18 per cent of the victims were working; all of them had incomes of less than JD450 per month, with 58 per cent earning less than JD250 per month; 69 per cent of women were either single or divorced.
Thus, the profile of the victims shows lack of economic and educational empowerment of the women, in addition to them being unwed, which also indicates their dependency on relatives for their livelihood. This lack of empowerment is a strong indicator of vulnerability.
The profile of the perpetrators tells a similar story of economic vulnerability: 76 per cent of crimes were committed by a brother of the victim. This brother is 66 per cent most likely to be under the age of 30; i.e., he is young. There is a 92 per cent chance of him being without a university or college degree. The average perpetrator is three times more likely than the average male Jordanian to be unemployed. One of two perpetrators is married, which increases his economic burden, since he is most likely to be a low-income person.
Overall, 66 per cent of the perpetrators are considered to be poor, and 73 per cent of the victims are also poor. This is a remarkable finding in a country where the percentage of people who live below the poverty line is 13 per cent, and approximately 30 per cent of the population lives around the poverty line of JD46.3 per person per month.
In other words, the crime is most likely to be committed against the poor and by the poor. If we want to reduce the incidence of these crimes in Jordan, we must recognise them for what they are: crimes of poverty. Furthermore, efforts should be made to increase the cost of committing the crime: reduce the benefit from the crime by removing the "honour" emblem from it and replacing it with a "poverty" tag, and improve the welfare of the vulnerable groups, particularly women, but also of the would-be perpetrators, the men.
By Yusuf Mansur
© Jordan Times 2009
