NCJ Number
198944
Journal
International Review of Victimology Volume: 9 Issue: 2 Dated: 2002 Pages: 113-135
Editor(s)
Susan Herman,
David Weisburd
Date Published
2002
Length
23 pages
Annotation
The authors discuss the influence of the victim's voice in community policing of violence against women.
Abstract
Israel, with a majority of Jewish communities and a highly collectivist society, is used as the case study for this article. The divergent and conflicting relations between the police and the minority communities comprised of Arabs and its victims are studied. Two databases containing information relevant for understanding the role of victims in community policing in violence against women are compared and contrasted. The voices of Arab females speaking about their abuse and describing their perceptions of police are compared to police officer's views about and perceptions of Arab female victims and their community. In conclusion, the authors report that female victims' safety and the improvement of relations between minority communities and the police are enhanced by transforming community policing for violence against women from a patriarchal vehicle, that permits such violence to be an internal affair to be resolved without police intervention, to an effective law enforcement intervention that enforces the family violence laws and creates empowerment and reduces the marginality of women victims in a minority community. A source list of references is included.