What Data? What Happens? Barriers to Generating Evidence-Based Policy to End Honour-Based Abuse
Funder: British Academy
Principal Investigator: Dr Helen McCabe
Duration: February 2023-January 2024
The importance of evidence-based policy is well-recognised, and an essential requirement for it is good data. Policy to combat and end Honour-Based Abuse (HBA), and to support survivors and identify those at risk is not currently well-based in evidence, and data-gathering on the issue by relevant bodies including the Home Office, police forces, local authorities and health professionals is patchy and idiosyncratic. Even where data is collected and shared publicly, it is not clear how this is used to inform decision-making by policy-makers at the local, regional or national levels.
This project is a British Academy Innovation Fellowship in partnership with Karma Nirvana, a leading charity who run the national helpline for honour-based abuse. It seeks to map key stakeholders who are, and who should be, collecting data on HBA; identify and share best-practice in data-gathering; recognise barriers to effective knowledge-exchange faced by stakeholders; and co-develop ways to overcome them. We will co-design policy recommendations about data-gathering and data-sharing to inform policy to combat HBA, and explore ways of ensuring these have impact.