The Malaysian Police and Domestic Violence

Abstract

The Malaysian police force has a history of poorly responding to domestic violence crime, but this poor response has never been academically discussed or studied. Interviews were conducted with Malaysian domestic violence victims, local women’s rights NGO leaders, Malaysian social workers, lawyers, and police officers to betterunderstand this problem, and this study seeks to identify specific problems and potentialsolutions. The problems identified by this study were rooted in poor understanding of domestic violence crime among the police force, and a systemic unwillingness to respond to the problem. The suggested recommendations come from social workers and domestic violence victims, and all highlight the role of the police force in domestic violence response and prevention in Malaysia.