Honor killings stem from unconstrained honor norms

Honor killings represent an extreme pathology arising because honor morality places almost no restriction on the content of honor norms—each community freely determines how honor and dishonor are allocated, so in some cultures even a woman's rape or suspected indiscretion genuinely (not imaginarily, from their perspective) dishonors the family, creating a perceived perverse moral duty to kill; this requires a higher authority enforcing minimal human rights to contain, but does not justify discarding honor wholesale since such killings exist in only a tiny minority of honor cultures.