Guide for Law Enforcement Officials on
Effective Responses to Violence
against Women
Wânia Pasinato
April 2006
29
Introduction
The last twenty-five years have seen a vast array of initiatives aimed at preventing, curbing and eradicating all forms of violence against women. Many of those initiatives stemmed from civil society movements, in particular women’s groups. One of the outcomes of such initiatives was a commitment by several Governments to recognize and confront violence against women as a problem of the State.
Violence against women has now become an internationally discussed public issue. Studies conducted in all five continents suggest that no society can consider itself immune from such violence. Violent practices that victimize women and girls transcend social, cultural, ethnic and religious boundaries.
Reports of the violence to which many women are daily subjected first emerged in the 1970s. Studies in the United States of America, Canada and some European countries showed that the home was not, as believed, a sanctuary and refuge but a setting for violence and humiliation against women and girls by male household members. Such conduct included battery and other maltreatment, including sexual abuse. In the most extreme cases, women were killed. Its consequences began to be measured in terms of the impact on family members’ physical and psychological health. While most victims were adult females, effects of violence could be found in all members of the family, especially children who regularly witnessed repeated scenes of violence between parents.
Over the next years, a political agenda on violence against women began to be defined. The United Nations, through its treaties and conventions, made the issue a fundamental right to be safeguarded. That change in status led to the recognition that violence against women constituted a violation of human rights. By signing and ratifying United Nations treaties and conventions, States thus undertook not only to protect women from violence but also to create mechanisms for prosecuting and punishing its perpetrators.
In recent years, Governments’ efforts to curb and eradicate all violent practices against women have increased. In line with recommendations of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Violence against Women, several countries have drafted and adopted specific laws to deal with domestic and family violence. Such legislative reforms are important in that they send a clear message to society that violence against women is not a private matter, that it will be treated as a crime and that it will not be tolerated by society. Other initiatives with similar aims have been observed. Examples are the establishment of specialized police services to deal with women victims of violence; the creation of courts specializing in domestic violence; the training of law enforcement and judicial officers and the incorporation of a gender perspective in policy formulation on security and specialized medical, psychological, social and legal support services for women in situations of violence.
Experience has nevertheless shown that it is easier to change the law than to change practice. In many countries, public silence and government inertia have ensured that rates of violence against women remain high. Without clearly targeted efforts to alter institutional culture and practice and introduce gender mainstreaming, most legal and political reforms are of little worth. Legislative measures are ineffectual unless accompanied by alterations in law enforcement standards, values and conduct.
The present handbook aims to promote the necessary changes in institutional culture and practice, in particular in policing work. In most countries, law enforcement institutions are in a key position to guarantee access to the criminal justice system. In cases of violence against women, police forces are often called upon to intervene when an incident is in progress or shortly after an assault has taken place. As police officers have responsibility for receiving initial crime notifications, their attitude towards victims and the events that they are to relate will have a strong impact on ensuing developments. In other words, police treatment can help victims leave a violent relationship or conversely make them decide to remain in that situation, believing that nothing and no one can assist them.
Police forces also have a duty to investigate crimes reported to them. In cases of violence against women, children and adolescents, appropriate investigations should enable abuse to be assessed and perpetrators to be brought to trial and punished.
This handbook is a tool for raising awareness among law enforcement officials regarding the behaviour they should adopt vis-à-vis such offences. It is also an important guide on preventive police action in cases of violence against women, children and adolescents.
It contains a set of recommendations and procedures of relevance in situations of violence against women. Studies show that there are often reports from police officers on how frustrating their work can be in cases of violence against women since many women, having made statements to the police, withdraw their complaints and try to have their case closed. Such conduct on the part of women has been used by the police and judiciary to explain the low number of cases that come to court and actually result in convictions.
To change this situation and enable procedures to be implemented in a way that guarantees women swift and effective responses, it is important for law enforcement officials to be able to recognize manifestations of violence and to treat them seriously. It is also important for them to appreciate the complex dynamics of abusive relationships and the feelings of fear, dependence, responsibility and isolation that women experience.
Violent practices against women take different forms of expression. Those forms vary from country to country according to cultural, social and religious contexts and between different regions within countries. Equally, women do not form a homogenous group. Differences in ethnicity, social status, religion and age mean that women experience similar scenes of violence differently. In particular, some groups of women appear more vulnerable to violence and warrant special treatment by support services. Notable examples are immigrant women, especially those in illegal situations, minority groups such as gypsies and women with physical or mental deficiencies.
This handbook thus seeks to demonstrate these differences by highlighting their presence in different national contexts. It also attempts to draw attention to the fact that such variations represent a further challenge for the authorities, which need to devote major efforts to identifying prevalent forms of violence and their patterns of occurrence, establishing specific programmes and policies as and where required.
The handbook is divided into two parts. The first is aimed at providing a better understanding of the problem of violence against women. Its definition, manifestations, causes and explanations, the cycle of spousal abuse and factors that contribute to perpetuating situations of violence are some of the aspects explored in this part of the handbook.
Its purpose is to furnish law enforcement officials with information that will enable them to recognize and identify key elements in defining violence against women. If used in formulating support policies for women, this knowledge will constitute an important step in the prevention of violence.
The second part deals with the role of the police and offers guidelines on how law enforcement personnel should act in cases of violence reported by women. It sets out general procedures formulated on the basis of successful experiences in different countries. Given regional differences in availability of technical resources, legislative differences in treatment of crime, differences in criminal procedures and differences in police powers, the guidelines should be adapted in order to achieve the best results at all times in each specific context.
In addition to police incident reports, the importance of contact between law enforcement agencies and other services providing support to women in situations of violence is emphasized. In this respect, strengthening the links between the community and the police is shown to be extremely important. Cooperation is the key to the effectiveness of many of the procedures presented in this handbook.
Part one
Understanding the problem of violence
against women
Defining violence against women
Given that violence manifests itself in a variety of forms, there is no single, universally accepted definition to describe the phenomenon.
Different studies suggest different definitions according to the intended focus. Violent practices against women can be classified on the basis of the place of occurrence (domestic violence, violence in the workplace); they can refer to the type of relationship between the persons involved (family violence, spousal violence); and they can be identified as anti-women violence if the purpose is to show that the violence is linked to the victim’s female status. Violence may also be defined on the basis of the crime committed (sexual violence and femicide, a category whose purpose is to stress the sexist nature of the killing of women, as in the case of the deaths in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico).
A more recent development is the concept of gender-based violence (GBV), which focuses on violence that results from the unequal distribution of power between the sexes.
While all forms of violence against women should be opposed irrespective of the place of occurrence, status of the perpetrator and nature of the relationship between perpetrators and victims, this handbook stresses the importance of police intervention in regard to two crime types: violence involving couples (spouses, partners, lovers) in current or former relationships and sexual violence (or violence arising from female exploitation for sexual purposes), whether committed by strangers or by persons known to the victim and whether involving female adults, children or adolescents.
The guiding principles in the preparation of this handbook are founded on the definition contained in the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women (1993), reaffirmed in the Platform for Action of the Beijing Declaration. Article1 of the Declaration states that “violence against women” means any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life (General Assembly resolution 48/104 of 20 December 1993).
The following forms of violence are set out in article2:
· Physical, sexual and psychological violence occurring in the family, including battering, sexual abuse of female children in the household, dowry-related violence, marital rape, female genital mutilation, and other traditional practices harmful to women, non-spousal violence and violence related to exploitation;
· Physical, sexual and psychological violence occurring within the general community, including rape, sexual abuse, sexual harassment and intimidation at work, in educational institutions and elsewhere, trafficking in women and forced prostitution;
· Physical, sexual and psychological violence perpetrated or condoned by the State, wherever it occurs.
As it is recognized that violence against women persists through values, beliefs and behaviours that perpetuate women’s subordination to men, this handbook also includes the definition of gender-based violence proposed by the Project for the Promotion of Gender Policies:[1] “Gender-based violence is considered to be all those situations of violence that particularly or disproportionately affect people because they are women or men. However, the ways in which men and women are involved in this type of situation and the levels and types of effects on them as men and women are different. The inequality of power between women and men is the basis for gender-based violence. It is precisely this power inequality—which is to women’s disadvantage—that results in a significant majority of women victims. And the fact that women are the majority of those affected explains why the concept of gender-based violence is still closely associated with the concept of violence against women.”[2]
Types and forms of violence against women
The complexity and variety of the ways in which violence against women can manifest itself have recently been acknowledged. The social debate on some of those practices and the pressure on the State and public opinion to recognize them as violations of human rights are also recent developments. Some forms of violence, such as rape, battery and murder, appear universal. Explanations for the occurrence of such violent practices can vary from society to society.
One of the main obstacles to combating violence against women, in particular violence taking place in domestic and family settings, lies in the non-recognition of certain violent behaviours as crimes.
Violence is a socially constructed concept and thus possesses a historical and cultural dimension. The concept of violence is often combined with the concept of crime, which is also a social construct. However, violence and crime entail different phenomena, the former being broader than the latter and not therefore reducible to it.[3]
The World Health Organization defines violence as:
“The intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment or deprivation.
“The definition used by the World Health Organization associates intentionality with the committing of the act itself, irrespective of the outcome it produces. (...)
“The inclusion of the word ‘power’, in addition to the phrase ‘use of physical force’, broadens the nature of a violent act and expands the conventional understanding of violence to include those acts that result from a power relationship, including threats and intimidation.”[4]
Intimate partner violence is understood by the World Health Organization to refer to “any behaviour (…) that causes physical, psychological or sexual harm to those in the relationship. Such behaviour includes:
· Acts of aggression—such as slapping, hitting, kicking and beating;
· Psychological abuse—such as intimidation, constant belittling and humiliating;
· Forced intercourse and other forms of sexual coercion;
· Various controlling behaviours—such as isolating a person from their family and friends, monitoring their movements and restricting their access to information or assistance.”[5]
Crime is a legal concept. Through its penal codes and judicial systems, every society defines conduct which is or is not recognized as a crime and punishable under the criminal justice system. Moreover, not all crime is violent; for example, property offences such as theft do not involve violence. Similarly, not all violent conduct is recognized as a crime or properly falls within the criminal law, one example being trafficking in persons.