November 30, 2020

The International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women is observed annually on 25 November to raise awareness of the scale and nature of violence against women around the world. In 2020, Singapore took action against such acts by fully repealing marital immunity for rape through the Criminal Law Reform Act. However, there remains more to be done. In ‘Rethinking the Problem of Policing Marital Violence: A Singapore Perspective’ (Policing and Society, 2002), Associate Professor Narayanan Ganapathy (NUS Department of Sociology) reveals the structural and cultural conditions that shape the policing of marital violence in Singapore, and how they have constrained reform efforts that seek to further empower and protect women against marital violence.

A/P Ganapathy argues that reform has been ineffective because while there is an attempt to change the cultural assumptions held by the police towards marital violence, there is still a lack of corresponding change in social, political, and legal structural conditions. One of these structures is the state’s discourse concerning marital violence and the institution of the family, which was fleshed out in the state’s rejection of the Family Violence Bill in 1995. In order to protect the institution of the family in Singapore – one that reflects and normalises women’s subordinate status, state leaders avoided implementing litigation as per the Bill in favour of non-legalistic settlement of marital violence. There were similar views held within police subculture, as one policeman said that he did not want to be seen as a “family breaker” by conducting arrests.

The other structure is found in the Singapore Penal Code – the police can only arrest perpetrators without a warrant if they have voluntarily caused ‘grievous hurt’. The exclusionary definition of ‘grievous hurt’ has prevented most cases from ending up in arrest. In such cases, policemen could only advise the victim to make a police report. However, this tends not to result in criminalisation as many victims would withdraw charges or fail to substantiate allegations of assault.

A/P Ganathany concludes that true reform has to start by analysing the relationship between the police institution and the state, and the gender hierarchy maintained by the state. Ultimately, there needs to be a change in the fundamental power relations in Singaporean society characterised by hetero-patriarchy, paternalism, and authoritarianism.

Read the article here.