Open Access Review article

Shame Killing: Characteristics and Outlooks

Saeed Shoja Shafti*

Department of Psychiatry, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences [USWR], Iran

Corresponding Author

Received Date:February 01, 2021;  Published Date: April 09, 2021

Summary

An honor killing is a kind of crime, which includes the murder of a family member, due to the perpetrator’s certainty that the victim has brought disgrace or scandal for the family or has disrupted the ethics of a community or a religion with honor values. So, HK is a type of domestic violence in the broadest sense of violence within a family. Both men and women are the victims of shame killing. The threat of murder is used to control behavior, particularly with reference to sexuality and marriage. Committers often do not face negative stigma within their societies, because their conduct is seen as warranted. Though shame killings are often associated with the Asian continent and Middle East, they occur all over the world. In developed societies the majority of honor killings are committed by first generation immigrants against second and third generation to prevent them from becoming westernized. On the other hand, a systematic review of the research literature indicates a paucity of studies relative to the presumed size of the problem, and despite a recent increase in published surveys, persistent methodological limitations limit the generalizability of conclusions. In the present article, which is focused essentially on physiognomies of developing countries, the sociocultural, forensic and psychopathological aspects of honor killing are discussed, while considering that as a double-sided problem the demands reciprocal cultural and educational changes for maximum compromising and reshaping of collective behavior.

Keywords: Honor killing; Honor crime; Shame killing; Murder; Criminology; Criminality; Forensic Psychiatry; Psychopathology

Citation
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