myAIPMWomen police stations: have they fulfilled their promise?
Mangai Natarajan & Dhanya Babu | Police Practice and Research
Abstract
Women police stations (WPS) are recognized as an important component of gender-sensitive policing for dealing with domestic violence (DV). These stations have been established in many developing countries to serve two main purposes: to deal better with crimes against women and to provide a rewarding career for women officers. This paper examines whether WPS have met these expectations. At a time when other countries are thinking about introducing WPS, it is important to validate best practices and identify shortcomings for better use of police and public resources in dealing with DV and other crimes against women. We describe the structure and functioning of the stations based on interviews, review pertinent studies and analyze official data to explain the role of the WPS in empowering victims; improving their access to justice; reducing victimization and increasing the representation of women in policing. Theory, policy and research implications are discussed.
Introduction
Women Police Stations (WPS) were established with the intention of serving two purposes: to deal better with crimes against women and to provide a rewarding career for women officers. Most of the countries that introduced the stations are developing economies, such as India and Brazil where there are now more than 1000 WPS. The public in these countries has widely welcomed the stations as providing a cultural and gender-sensitive solution for women and girls who have been the victims of violence, but WPS have fared less well in the published literature.
While some cultures or countries are either under denial or pay little attention to violence against women, intimate partner or domestic violence (DV) has been recognized worldwide as criminal behavior and, to date, 144 countries have laws against domestic violence (World Health Organization, 1997). 1 To give teeth to these laws, a variety of police administrative units have been introduced, including women police bureaus, all WPS; women cells, women police units, domestic violence units, women’s desk, protection cells. Among these, Women Police Stations stand out as the prominent criminal justice policy response. They have been established in many countries including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Ghana, India, Kosovo, Liberia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Uganda and Uruguay and are now recognized as an important gender-sensitive mode of policing to deal with domestic violence (Carrington et al., 2019; Denney, 2019; Ellsberg et al., 2015; Nair et al., 2017; Natarajan, 2016; UN Women, 2011a).
It is now widely recognized that the security needs of women and girls are different from those of men and boys. In seeking to develop measures that will serve the security needs of women, it is also now recognized that what works in one situation or in one place may not work in another because of the variations in cultural context. This reality shapes the debate over security in both traditional and modern society and the global south and the north. The culminating point is that gender-based violence must be dealt with gender-sensitive initiatives. One key need is to promote gender-sensitive initiatives in policing to give women greater access to justice and protect them from victimization. These same initiatives will lead to more women taking up a career in policing, which will increase their representation in the police and in turn will help to address violence against women. WPS are an important means for serving these ends. In addition, when other countries are thinking about introducing women police stations, 2 it is time to validate best practices and the shortcomings for better using police and public resources in dealing with DV and other crimes against women.
As Hoyle and Sanders (2000) noted, most women victims of domestic violence will only report their abuse to the police after repeated episodes. Indeed, many women, particularly in ‘traditional’ countries believe that reporting their problems to the police will do little good and harm their marital status. WPS offer a solution to these problems because a woman making a complaint to them would be sure of encountering a woman officer who could be expected to understand her situation (Natarajan, 2016). The idea behind women serving women reinforces the need for recruiting more women in policing to assist with the implementation of gender-sensitive police initiatives.
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Women police stations: have they fulfilled their promise? Mangai Natarajan & Dhanya Babu, Police Practice and Research, 2020
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