Charting the Course: An Overview of Domestic Violence in the South Asian Community in the United States

In the South Asian community in the United States, domestic violence is a prevalent problem of significant magnitude. Although the community stridently denies the existence of this horror, women have been systematically organizing antiviolenceagainst- women work for the last 15 yearsAt this time, it is a vibrant movement struggling with several complex issues that are perhaps less common in thedominant white community. As in the lives of immigrant women of color, much of the intricacies of domestic violencein the South Asian context emerge from the intersections of race, class, andsresidencystatus problems. Consequently, a slew of personal, institutional, and cultural barriers commingle to form roadblocks for battered South Asian women, who attempt to escape family violence. As the needs of battered South Asian first and second generation women enlarge and become more perceptible, the community-based organizations have to ready themselves for more complicated activities in the future.     

Domestic Violence in the South Asian Muslim Immigrant Population in the United States

This paper describes the phenomenon of domestic violence in the South Asian Muslim population living in the United States. Religion, culture, and family play significant and positive roles in the lives of South Asian women. This paper highlights some of the problematic areas in which these institutions are not responding to the needs of women. These findings are based upon the author's work in a committee for the prevention of domestic violence in the Muslim community and upon personal experience of the South Asian culture.     

(In)credible Violence: An Analysis of Post-Alvarado Domestic Violence Asylum Cases in the United States

ABSTRACT

Every year, women from around the world apply for asylum in the United States to escape an abusive partner. In this article I find that domestic violence applicants may not be interpreted as viable truth tellers since they are missing specific markers of credibility, including legitimacy of fear, coherence and corroboration, and proof of no culpability. I link these questions of credibility to broader US discourses about gender-based violence and racialized conceptions of victimhood, which show a preference for credentialed knowledge over women’s experiences and employ assumptions about autonomous, linear decision-making. I argue that the deployment of these discourses represents a tactic of exclusion, likely motivated by fears of immigration. Asylum adjudication practices (including credibility determinations) must address these issues in order to secure the health and well-being of women fleeing abusive partners in their countries of origin.     

Liminal Lives: South Asian Youth and Domestic Violence

This article examines domestic violence experiences among South Asian youth in the United States. The paper uses a broad definition of violence, a continuum which includes aggression, coercion, control, intimidation, assault, to accommodate the meanings suggested by the youth. The main argument of this paper is that the youth's experiences cannot be adequately explained with reference to individual deviance or traditional cultural norms of ethnic groups. Based on a sociological perspective of gender, this paper argues that these youth are placed between mainstream and ethnic gender regimes and their experience of domestic violence depends on how these regimes work in relation to each other. Thus their liminal social structural position emerges as a significant factor in their experiences of violence.     

Rebirth of the Self: How Battered Women Experience Treatment

The study analyzes battered women's experiences of treatment processes and results. A qualitative methodology based on the phenomenological approach, including semi-structured deep interviews, was used in collecting and analyzing the data of 60 women who had undergone treatment in six different agencies. All the agencies were highly qualified in providing psychosocial intervention in cases involving domestic violence and were operated by the Israel Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. The findings reveal that the most significant experience for the women was being held and contained by the social worker, an action that allowed their recognition of self. Concerning outcomes, objective results such as taking action toward changing the violent relationship or leaving it were much less significant in the women's experience. Various aspects of the experience are described and analyzed, emphasizing the treatment process as a rebirth of the women. Implications for treatment based on this significant perspective are given.     

Domestic Violence in the Second Half of Life

Providing an adequate and effective community response to women age 50 and older who experience domestic violence is complicated by the oftentimes disparate goals and expectations of service providers, emergency responders, and victims themselves. This article shares information provided by participants of focus groups designed to understand and identify what women age 50 and older want and need from agencies that provide services to enhance victim safety.     

Domestic Violence in Rural India: Phenomenological Study from Cultural Perspective

Historically, women in India have been experiencing domestic violence in various forms throughout their lives, irrespective of caste, class, religion, and region. The objective of this study is to gain a deep and thorough understanding of the causes and concerns relating to domestic violence in rural Indian sociocultural context. It also tries to understand the type of support the female partners get while coping with intimate partner violence through phenomenological principles. The purposive sample consisted of 15 rural Indian women. The results showed four main themes: (1) causes of domestic violence, (2) impact on health, (3) support received, and (4) dilemma of abused women. During the study the women came up with various causes leading to domestic violence that affected their physical and mental health. They also narrated the limited support they received in terms of protection from their family and/or neighbors, highlighting their dilemma and helplessness in the rural Indian cultural context. This study also attempts to show some insights on what Hindu religion says about women.     

Hidden in the Margins: A Qualitative Examination of What Professionals in the Domestic Violence Field Know About Transgender Domestic Violence

This qualitative study endeavored to examine the views and experiences of individuals who work with, and those who consider issues related to, transgender domestic violence in an effort to determine what (if anything) is known about this construct. Using a phenomenological approach, ten interviews were conducted with individuals who professionally confront transgender intimate partner violence. Overall, the study found that many individuals from different disciplines were in agreement concerning the paucity of resources for this population, and future research would benefit from quantitative research to understand more about transgender domestic abuse. Furthermore, criminal justice organizations should take active steps within their own agencies to appropriately address this problem for transgender victims of abuse. Finally, all of the participants stated their beliefs that transgender domestic abuse is a very serious problem and believed that more research should be done to better understand it before it can be addressed.     

Factors Related to Domestic Violence in Asia: The Conflict between Culture and Patriarchy

While most research on domestic violence (DV) has focused on the West, there is an increasing interest in DV in Asian countries. This article explores the extent of DV against women in areas where most of the research has been conducted, including South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia. The factors associated with DV in the Asian region is explored through the Heise model that considers four levels of analysis, including personal factors, the microsystem, the exosystem, and the macrosystem. The analysis points to the importance of the patriarchal culture that is inextricably linked to culture that is resistant to change and must be addressed at a range of levels.     

Research on Domestic Violence in the 1990s: Making Distinctions

This review of the family literature on domestic violence suggests that two broad themes of the 1990s provide the most promising directions for the future. The first is the importance of distinctions among types or contexts of violence. Some distinctions are central to the theoretical and practical understanding of the nature of partner violence, others provide important contexts for developing more sensitive and comprehensive theories, and others may simply force us to question our tendency to generalize carelessly from one context to another. Second, issues of control, although most visible in the feminist literature that focuses on men using violence to control “their” women, also arise in other contexts, calling for more general analyses of the interplay of violence, power, and control in relationships. In addition to these two general themes, our review covers literature on coping with violence, the effects on victims and their children, and the social effects of partner violence.

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Victim or Whore: The Similarities and Differences between Victim's Experiences of Domestic Violence and Sex Trafficking

This research review addresses the similarities and differences between domestic violence and sex trafficking victimization. While there is evidence that domestic violence and sex trafficking often co-occur, there is a large disparity in the understanding and interventions utilized by law enforcement as well as the services available for victims of each crime despite the considerable overlap of victimization. This article explores current research regarding domestic violence and sex trafficking with a focus towards identifying areas of overlap and areas distinct to sex trafficking.     

Domestic Abuse Assessment in Child Custody Disputes: Beware the Domestic Violence Research Paradigm

ABSTRACT

In some states, custody assessors are now required to become familiar with the dynamics of prevalence of domestic abuse since the presence of one or more abusive parents in the house has an impact on the “best interests of the child.” The domestic abuse literature is misleading in setting a framework for abuse incidence and threat source for children. Males are represented as primary perpetrators of physical abuse although data from meta-analytic studies show otherwise. Indirect aggression is scarcely mentioned in the literature, although prevalent in research on aggression. Physical violence directed towards children is actually more likely to be mother-perpetrated. Child safety may be compromised if attention is focused solely on the possibility of abuse from a male perpetrator.     

Complexity of domestic violence in a South Asian context in Hong Kong: cultural and structural impact

With the dearth of empirical research related to the experiences of domestic violence among South Asian communities in Hong Kong, this study engages with migrant South Asian women’s subjective understanding and experience of domestic violence. Presenting women’s narratives of their experiences with domestic violence allow for a better understanding of the complexities that inform and shape women’s experiences and decision-making in the face of partner violence. This empirical study investigated South Asian women’s experience of domestic violence in the context of Hong Kong through in-depth interviews with 14 South Asian women who had experienced abuse and 6 helping professionals from 4 social service agencies. Analysis of the data revealed that the nature and context of abuse posed as a barrier in their help seeking. The findings highlight the importance of understanding the influence of cultural and structural conditions and the difficulties and complexities women face that increases women’s vulnerability to abuse. This paper offers an analysis of how structures thereby come to impact on women’s distress and vulnerability. The study also highlights the need for inclusive service provision for minority ethnic women experiencing domestic violence.     

Isolation as a Form of Marital Violence: The South Asian Immigrant Experience

Isolation is an important factor in marital abuse among South Asian immigrant families. It lends itself to the invisibility immigrant women experience based on their ethno-gender status in the United States. Drawn from unstructured interviews with abused South Asian immigrant women, three different levels of isolation are explained. The first level involves the quality of a woman's relationship with her spouse; the second is related to the frequency and quality of social interaction with friends, relatives, and coworkers; and the third is explained in terms of the level of access to and participation in the ethnic community and other formal institutions.     

Isolation as a Form of Marital Violence: The South Asian Immigrant Experience1

Isolation is an important factor in marital abuse among South Asian immigrant families. It lends itself to the invisibility immigrant women experience based on their ethno-gender status in the United States. Drawnfrom unstructured interviews with abused South Asian immigrant women, three different levels of isolation are explained. The first level involves the quality of a woman’s relationship with her spouse; the second is related to thefrequency and quality of social interaction with friends, relatives, and coworkers; and the third is explained in terms of the level of access to and participation in the ethnic community and other formal institutions.     

Pathogenic and Protective Relations in Alcoholic Families (I): Development of the Ritual Invasion Scale

ABSTRACT

Family of origin daily routines and celebratory rituals may serve to protect offspring from the harmful effects of parental drinking. However, parental alcoholism may disrupt these positive rituals, and this “invasion” has been proposed as a mechanism for transmitting risk to offspring. This paper describes the development of a “Ritual Invasion Scale” which may facilitate research and treatment applications with these families.     

Intimate Partner Violence in Late Life: An Analysis of National News Reports

Intimate partner violence (IPV) in late life takes various forms including physical harm, sexual assault, and murder. Using national newspaper reports of IPV among elders, we identified the types of violence reported most frequently in media and examined how the abuse was conceptualized by reporters. We found that most cases of IPV reported involved murder, with men as perpetrators and women as victims. Caregiving stress and health problems were frequently cited as contributing factors in the cases. Interpreting these findings from a feminist perspective, we suggest implications for practitioners working with older adults.     

Managing the Trauma of Community Violence and Workplace Accidents in South Africa

Summary

Community violence that spills over to the workplace is substantially impacting the quality of work/life in South Africa. Gold mining is one of the country's leading industries and also one of the most dangerous. Internal and external employee assistance programs are well represented in South Africa and are helping employees deal with the economic and psychological fall-out of community violence and work related accidents.     

Therapeutic Responses to Domestic Violence in Australia: A History of Controversies

This paper reviews controversies about domestic violence occurring in heterosexual relationships discussed in the Australian context by practitioners and academics and published in the Australian & New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy over the past three decades. Controversies arose in relation to the provision of therapeutic interventions for domestic violence, primarily in individual and couple counselling and group programs. After a literature review, the following controversial issues are identified: (1) the role of patriarchy: Is a patriarchal culture the main cause of domestic violence? (2) Systemic family therapy and gendered violence: Does systemic family therapy hide men's responsibility for domestic violence? (3) Therapeutic and educational interventions for domestic violence: Does therapy turn a ‘crime’ into a ‘psychological problem’? (4) Men as victims: Do both men and women perpetrate domestic violence in equal measure? (5) It takes two to tango: What part do women play in eliciting men's violence?