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Police responses to intimate partner sexual violence in South Asian communities

Gill, Aisha K.; Harrison, Karen

Authors

Aisha K. Gill

Karen Harrison



Abstract

Recognition of sexual violence as a serious problem has been reflected in the wide range of initiatives that over the past 20 years in the UK have been designed to tackle this problem. Emphasis on prevention, protection, and redress has enabled criminal justice and other responses to become increasingly embedded. Nevertheless, a significant lacuna remains in terms of the contours, context, and consequences of intimate partner sexual violence in South Asian communities. Despite victim-survivors’ offering solid evidence of the prevalence of sexual violence in these communities, this kind of abuse is generally not reported to criminal justice agencies (Gilligan, P. and Akhtar, S. (2006). ‘Cultural Barriers to the Disclosure of Child Sexual Abuse in Asian Communities: Listening to What Women Say.’ British Journal of Social Work 36(8): 1361–1377; Hohl, K. and Stanko, E. (2015). ‘Complaints of Rape and the Criminal Justice System: Fresh Evidence on the Attrition Problem in England and Wales.’ European Journal of Criminology 12(3): 324–341). Anecdotally, however, this type of violence does appear to have been increasing over time. With that backdrop in mind, this article looks at how four police areas are currently responding to intimate partner sexual violence where the victim-survivor of it is from a South Asian community. In particular, the article evaluates police officers’ levels of understanding with regard to pertinent cultural values and, in turn, assesses the level of training given to help with this awareness, and the appropriateness of front-line police practice. Finally, consideration is also given to what needs to change in order to encourage more victim-survivors from South Asian communities to come forward.

Citation

Gill, A. K., & Harrison, K. (2016). Police responses to intimate partner sexual violence in South Asian communities. Policing, 10(4), 446-455. https://doi.org/10.1093/police/paw027

Acceptance Date May 30, 2016
Online Publication Date Jul 28, 2016
Publication Date Dec 1, 2016
Deposit Date Aug 24, 2016
Publicly Available Date Jul 31, 2018
Journal Policing
Print ISSN 1752-4512
Publisher Oxford University Press
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 10
Issue 4
Pages 446-455
DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/police/paw027
Keywords Sexual violence; South Asian communities; Black and minority ethnic women; Policing
Public URL https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/442500
Publisher URL http://policing.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/07/25/police.paw027
Additional Information This is the accepted manuscript of an article published in Policing, 2016. The version of record is available at the DOI link in this record.
Contract Date Aug 24, 2016

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