By Aneeta Prem
London | Thursday 26 February 2026 | 09:15 GMT
The Crown Prosecution Service has expanded its guidance on what it terms “honour-based abuse”, directing prosecutors to recognise dowry-related abuse, immigration-related exploitation, transnational marriage abandonment, and spiritual or ritualistic violence, including cases linked to accusations of witchcraft.
This matters because institutional language drives practice. It shapes how police record allegations, how prosecutors build cases, how courts frame harm, and whether victims are treated as credible or dismissed as being caught in a “family dispute”.
I use the term dishonour-based abuse to describe crimes often labelled “honour-based abuse”, because no abuse is honourable and the language can obscure criminal harm.
The CPS is pushing prosecutors to look for patterns rather than isolated incidents, especially where violence, intimidation or coercive control is justified by references to family reputation, shame or “honour”. It has also acknowledged that the vast majority of cases flagged under this label are linked to domestic abuse, which reinforces a point that frontline specialists have made for years: these are usually domestic abuse cases, intensified by collusion, silencing and escalation risk.
There is still no single criminal offence of “honour-based abuse”. Prosecutors must rely on established offences, including coercive and controlling behaviour, assault, sexual offences, harassment, threats, forced marriage offences and child safeguarding provisions. Guidance can strengthen outcomes only if cases are recognised early, investigated properly and charged accurately.
The strength of the updated guidance is that it names harms that are often minimised or misunderstood. Naming does not create new crimes. It improves recognition of what is already criminal.
What it is
Dowry-related abuse involves harm or control linked to demands for money, jewellery, property or major assets connected to marriage. In the UK it is increasingly reported in the form of housing demands, where a girl’s family is pressured to transfer a house or raise money well beyond its means.
How it harms victims and families
This is a mechanism of extraction. Families can be driven into debt or poverty trying to comply. When they refuse or cannot pay, the punishment frequently lands on the girl. It can include humiliation, intimidation, isolation, surveillance, restriction of movement and violence.
A key feature is that abuse can be enforced by more than one perpetrator. When in-laws and extended family participate, coercion becomes harder to resist and harder to report safely.
What prosecutors should do differently
Treat the “demand” as context and focus on criminal behaviour used to enforce it. Identify coercive control and domestic abuse patterns early rather than waiting for escalation.
What it is
Immigration-related exploitation is coercive control that uses immigration status as a weapon. It can include threats of deportation, passport confiscation, misinformation about legal rights, and blocking access to advice or support.
How it harms victims
The fear of removal or detention can silence victims completely. It increases dependence on the perpetrator for housing, money, movement and information. It also creates a chilling effect on reporting, particularly where victims fear that disclosing abuse will make their situation worse.
What prosecutors should do differently
Recognise immigration leverage as a control tactic and charge the underlying domestic abuse and coercive control, rather than treating the case as “complex” or “unclear”.
What it is
Transnational marriage abandonment occurs when a spouse is taken abroad and deliberately left there without resources, documents or a practical route home. It is often used as punishment, entrapment, or a means of forcing compliance.
How it harms victims
Victims may be stranded, isolated and cut off from UK safeguarding and legal remedies. Communication can be restricted, money withheld and passports taken. The risk of violence and exploitation can increase sharply, particularly where victims are left in unfamiliar settings without family support.
What prosecutors should do differently
Treat abandonment abroad as potentially planned coercive control. Build the case around the pattern of control, threats and deprivation rather than treating it as relationship breakdown.
What it is
Spiritual or ritualistic abuse refers to violence or cruelty justified by claims of possession, curses, witchcraft, “cleansing” or exorcism. In safeguarding, similar patterns are often described as abuse linked to faith or belief.
What it can involve
Violent “exorcisms”, beatings, restraint, starvation, forced ingestion of substances, humiliation and scapegoating, particularly of children or vulnerable adults.
How it harms victims
Fear is the mechanism. Victims may be terrorised into silence by threats of supernatural consequences or family punishment. These cases can escalate rapidly where multiple adults share the narrative and collude.
A stark UK example is the murder of Kristy Bamu, aged 15, following accusations of witchcraft and a so-called exorcism. His sister and her partner were convicted of murder.
What prosecutors should do differently
Strip out the narrative and focus on harm, control and culpability. Belief does not excuse violence. The evidential focus should be the acts, the injuries, the threats and the pattern of coercion.
What it is
Virginity testing and hymenoplasty are criminal offences in the UK. Guidance for professionals makes clear the legal position, the safeguarding risks and the need for multi-agency action.
How it harms victims
These practices are about control and punishment. They are often backed by threats, shame and surveillance. The impact includes sexual trauma, fear, and increased risk of violence where “proof” is demanded.
What prosecutors should do differently
Pursue these cases as serious violence against women and girls, not as “private medical matters”. Build the case around coercion, facilitation and the surrounding abuse context.
https://freedomcharity.org.uk/virginity-testing-and-hymenoplasty/
The CPS uses “honour-based abuse” as an institutional label. That label carries risk. It can unintentionally sanitise criminal harm or suggest that a motive creates a separate category of crime. It does not. These are established offences committed with familiar dynamics: coercive control, threats, violence and punishment.
Using the phrase dishonour-based abuse removes any trace of legitimacy and keeps the focus on criminal accountability. It also makes it harder for institutions to slip into cultural framing instead of safeguarding thinking.
Guidance does not protect victims on paper. Protection happens when systems act early and decisively.
The test now is whether:
The CPS has widened the lens. The justice system must now prove it can act on what it sees.
Crown Prosecution Service guidance and news release on honour-based abuse and harmful practices.
Multi-agency guidance on virginity testing and hymenoplasty (UK).
Safeguarding guidance on abuse linked to faith or belief.
Reporting on the Kristy Bamu murder convictions linked to witchcraft allegations.
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