Denmark: Mediation to prevent honor-crimes

The number of cases where ethnic families threaten and practice violence, particularly against daughters and married women, is steadily increasing. 

Since the National police began in 2007 a central registration of so-called honor-related crimes, there have been 280 cases registered nationally, many with several victims and almost all with several members of the family as perpetrators.

Most cases involve young women aged 15 to 25, who were either coerced to marry or wanted to marry somebody against the family's wishes.  There were also crimes against women who wanted to divorce.

At the same time, the data shows that the police has effective means to curb the number of these cases, before they become a serious part of the statistics: mediation between the two conflicting generations.  

The national organization of women's shelters (LOKK), was involved in mediation in over 40 cases in the past couple of years.  In almost all cases they managed to reconcile between the parties.  In the past year, in 19 out of 20 cases.

"If the mediation in these cases didn't succeed, there would have been a great risk that it would end with violence and murder of young ethnic girls," says Farwha Nielsen, cross-cultural projection adviser at LOKK, who had conducted the 40 mediations.

At the national police's national research center, NEC, deputy police inspector Jørgen Skov Isalin says:  "Mediation has shown itself to be the best preventive tool we have.  The families become reconciled and it's preferable to us dealing with a perpetrator."

Copenhagen West police inspector Jørn Kjer says that about 60 of the 279 cases in the national police statistics come from his area.  In 10 of the cases there was mediation and most went well.

The police intervenes when there is an issue of violence, threats, abduction or duress, but also reports when youth fear that something will happen to them because they have a Danish friend.

The police in Copenhagen have a special agent to take up these cases from the daily report and deal with LOKK about hem regarding mediation.  The same person takes care of the police side in the mediation.

Jørn Kjer, who is satisfied that so many cases are solve by mediation, says that LOKK conducts the talks, since it's important to have cultural and religious understanding.

Kjer adds that if there's a crime it leads to a criminal case, but that doesn't solve the problem.  The dispute is reconciled so that the family can move on.

In the 1990s there was a series of assault and murder cases and after the murder by family of two young ethnic girls - 14 year old Turkish Sonay in 2002 and 19 year old Pakistani Ghazala in 2005 - the police instituted a so called national strategy to prevent honor crimes.

And the statistics confirms what we were afraid of, says Jørgen Skov Isalin.  It's an issue of considerable problematics.  It's bad that it exists but positive that the cases come to light early enough that they can be prevented from developing to something more serious.  The increased focus brings more notice, so people come forward on time, and it's also a clear signal to the families that they shouldn't attempt it and that the authorities are keeping an eye on them.

The 279 cases that the national police registered in the past two years are hardly the whole truth.  The state prosecutor for special international crimes is investigating a series of case from the criminal registery's list of missing persons.

Since 1994 the police registered 65 missing persons and the state prosecutor has found 30 cases where the missing person is a young ethnic girl or woman.  And where the one lodging the complaint is not the family, but a municipality or school.

"Fortunately we found that 10 of them live in another country.  And we hope also to find the 20 others.  But both with the reports from LOKK about what can happen and not least the experience from England and Germany we can fear that in some of the 20 cases there's some criminality involved, also murder with honor-related or cultural background," says Niels Larsen, a police inspector at the state prosecution.

But maybe the problem is even bigger.  The state prosecutor has looked in CPR registers, where about 22,000 people are llisted as missing for many different reasons.

Niels Larsen says that together with the NEC they will now examine how many young girls and women of non-Danish background are missing, particularly from countries like Pakistan and Turkey, where such cultural-crimes are common.  Since these nationalities are not amongst the 30 persons reported missing, and that's quite remarkable.

Source: Politiken (Danish)

See also: Denmark: Honor crime count

3 comments:

PatrickHenry said...

What were those muslim men thinking would happen when they moved their families to Denmark, home of some of the nicest people on PLANET EARTH? They want to condemn their daughters to death just because they met the first gentleman in their lives AND LIKED HIM?

They should have stayed home if they only wanted their daughters to date smelly old pedophiles!

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