Making Sense of Honor Killings
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4745004 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ozan Aksoy (0000-0003-2170-6099, University College London), Aron Szekely (0000-0001-5651-4711, Collegio Carlo Alberto and Italian National Research Council) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 90 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 427-454 |
| Publication date | 2025-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Sociological Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-1224 • E-ISSN: 1939-8271 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/00031224251324504 |
| OpenAlex | W4409355509 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 45 |
Honor killings, which occur when women are perceived to have broken purity norms and bring "dishonor" to their family, pose profound moral and societal problems and underrecognized sociological puzzles. Given the immense cost, why do families murder their own daughter, niece, or cousin? Conversely, given the tragic consequences, why are norms broken in the first place? Drawing on accounts of honor killings, we characterize the key actors, actions, and incentives, and develop two interlinked theoretical models, one on norm-enforcement and another on norm-breaking. The former specifies the conditions under which honor norms should hold, the latter, counterintuitively, predicts that honor killings occur most frequently when honor norms are contested; not when they are strictest. Analyzing data from 24 countries and ~26,000 individuals and building a unique dataset of honor killings from Turkey, we find support for the hypotheses. Honor norms are stronger when laws offer leniency for honor killings, families' loss of reputation is more consequential, and community cohesion is higher. Actual killings have an inverse-U-shaped link with the prevalence of honor norms. Our work advances the theoretical understanding of honor norms and killings and offers one of the most comprehensive empirical analyses of the factors influencing honor killings
Criminology · Honor · Internet privacy · Psychoanalysis · Sense (electronics · Sociology · Computer Science · Cultural Differences and Values · Engineering · Psychology · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence
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Identifying Social Norms Using Coordination Games: Why Does Dictator Game Sharing Vary?
Manipulation of the running variable in the regression discontinuity design
Differences Between Tight and Loose Cultures
Economy and Society
For the Sake of Family and Tradition
Making Sense of Suicide Missions
Virtuous Violence
Execution by Family
Honor Killings in the Middle East and North Africa
The social and cultural psychology of honour
Honor killings in Muslim and Western countries in modern times
Confrontation versus withdrawal
Demographic Differentials and Demographic Integration of Turkish and Kurdish Populations in Turkey
Intrafamily femicide in defence of honour
Honor Killing Attitudes Amongst Adolescents in Amman, Jordan
Culture of honor
A Model of Dynamic Flows
Do the right thing
Gender Differences in the Perception of Honour Killing in Individualist Versus Collectivistic Cultures
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Honor Killings and the Construction of Gender in Arab Societies
Honor and Violence
Deterring Delinquents
Attitudes of Arab Israeli students towards honour killings
An Evolutionary Approach to Norms
The Cement of Society
Fuck Nuance
Honor Bound
The Politics behind the Veil
The Political Economy of Incarceration in the Cotton South, 1910-1925
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 4 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |