Asian & Pacific Islander Institute on Domestic Violence
450 Sutter Street, Suite 600, San Francisco CA 94108 Tel: 415.954.9988 x 315
apidvinstitute@apiahf.org

Domestic Violence in Asian Communities
F A C T S H E E T
July 2005

Introduction
Domestic violence is perpetuated by cultural beliefs and norms based on the devaluation of women. It is often legitimized, obscured, or denied by familial and social institutions.

Intimate partner violence is a pattern of behaviors that includes physical, sexual, verbal, emotional, economic, and/or psychological abuse used by adults or adolescents against (current or former) intimate partners, and sometimes against other family members. Domestic violence is also marked by a climate of fear in the home. It occurs in all communities regardless of race, class, faith, immigration status, education, gender identity, or sexual orientation. Asians and Pacific Islanders are no exception. This Fact Sheet has been compiled to raise awareness about what Asian and Pacific Islander (API) women are reporting and suffering, to contextualize the available data, and to influence the development of culturally specific interventions. Only within the past two decades, have researchers and advocates begun to gather data on domestic violence within API communities in the United States. Their findings reveal how cultural, linguistic, socioeconomic, and political barriers prevent API women from seeking help. The magnitude of the problem is therefore considerably greater than studies indicate.

1. Extent of the Problem

A compilation of community-based studies points to the high prevalence of domestic violence in Asian communities:

• 41-60% of respondents have reported experiencing domestic violence (physical and/or sexual) during their lifetime[1].

In a telephone survey of a nationally representative sample of 8,000 women and 8,000 men from all ethnic backgrounds conducted from November 1995 to May 1996[2]:

• 12.8% of Asian and Pacific Islander women reported experiencing physical assault by an intimate partner at least once during their lifetime; 3.8% reported having been raped. The rate of physical assault was lower than those reported by Whites (21.3%); African-Americans (26.3%); Hispanic, of any race, (21.2%); mixed race (27.0%); and American Indians and Alaskan Natives (30.7%). The low rate for Asian and Pacific Islander women may be attributed to underreporting.

The National Asian Women’s Health Organization (NAWHO) interviewed 336 Asian American women aged 18–34 who reside the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas, via telephone (NAWHO study, hereinafter)[3] :

• 16% of the respondents reported having experienced “pressure to have sex without their consent by an intimate partner.”
• 27% experienced emotional abuse by an intimate partner.

2. Domestic Violence in Specific Asian Communities
   Data for Pacific Islander communities is being compiled.

Cambodian
In a study conducted by the Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence in Boston, using a self-administered questionnaire at ethnic fairs (Asian Task Force study, hereinafter)[4]:

• 44–47% of Cambodians interviewed said they knew a woman who experienced domestic violence.

Chinese
In a random telephone survey of 262 Chinese men and women in Los Angeles county[5]:

• 18.1% of respondents reported experiencing “minor physical violence” by a spouse or intimate partner within their lifetime, and 8% of respondents reported “severe physical violence” experienced during their lifetime. [“Minor-severe” categories were based on the researcher’s classification criteria.]
• More acculturated respondents (as assessed by the researchers) were twice as likely to have been victims of severe physical violence. [Although the author states “It is possible that traditional cultural values serve as a protective buffer against stressors engendered by immigration”(p. 263), higher rates among more acculturated respondents may be due to their increased likelihood to report abuse.]

Filipina
In a survey conducted by the Immigrant Women’s Task Force of the Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and Services[6]:

• 20% of 54 undocumented Filipina women living in the San Francisco Bay Area reported having experienced some form of domestic violence, including physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, either in their country of origin or in the United States.

Japanese
In a face-to-face interview study of a random sample of 211 Japanese immigrant women and Japanese American women in Los Angeles County conducted in 1995 (Yoshihama study, hereinafter):

• 61% reported some form of physical, emotional, or sexual partner violence that they considered abusive -including culturally demeaning practices such as overturning a dining table, or throwing liquid at a woman- sometime prior to the interview[7].
• 52% reported having experienced physical violence during their lifetime. When the probability that some women who have not been victimized at the time of the interview, but may be abused at a later date is calculated, 57% of women are estimated to experience a partner’s physical violence by age 49[8].
• No significant generational differences were found in the age-adjusted risk of experiencing intimate physical, sexual or emotional violence .[9]

Korean
In a study of 256 Korean men from randomly selected Korean households in Chicago and in Queens (which then had the largest Korean population on the East Coast) in 1993[10]:

• 18% of the respondents reported committing at least one of the following acts of physical violence within the past year: throwing something, pushing, grabbing, shoving, or slapping their wife.
• 6.3% of the men committed what the researcher classified as “severe violence” (kicking, biting, hitting with a fist, threatening with a gun or knife, shooting, or stabbing).
• 33% of “male-dominated relationships” experienced at least one incident of domestic violence during the year, whereas only 12% of “egalitarian” relationships did. [Researchers classified couples into four types of relationships—i.e., egalitarian, divided power, male-dominated, and female-dominated—based on the respondents’ answers about how the couple makes decisions.]
• Nearly 39% of husbands who were categorized as experiencing “high stress” perpetrated domestic violence during the past year, whereas one out of 66 husbands categorized as experiencing “low stress” did so. [This correlation does not necessarily mean that stress causes or leads to domestic violence. Women and non-abusive men are also exposed to ‘high stress’ and do not resort to domestic violence.]

In a survey of a convenience sample of 214 Korean women and 121 Korean men in the San Francisco Bay Area conducted in 2000 by Shimtuh, a project serving Korean women in crisis (Shimtuh study, hereinafter)[11]:

• 42% of the respondents said they knew of a Korean woman who experienced physical violence from a husband or boyfriend.
• About 50% of the respondents knew someone who suffered regular emotional abuse.

A 1986 study involving face-to-face interviews of a convenience sample of 150 Korean women living in Chicago found that[12]:

• 60% reported experiencing physical abuse by an intimate partner sometime in their lives.
• 36.7% reported sexual violence by an intimate partner sometime in their lives.

South Asian[13]
The Raj and Silverman study of 160 South Asian women (who were married or in a heterosexual relationship), recruited through community outreach methods such as flyers, snowball sampling, and referrals in Greater Boston, found that[14]:

• 40.8% of the participants reported that they had been physically and/or sexually abused in some way by their current male partners in their lifetime; 36.9% reported having been victimized in the past year.
• 65% of the women reporting physical abuse also reported sexual abuse, and almost a third (30.4%) of those reporting sexual abuse reported injuries, some requiring medical attention.
• No significant difference was found in the prevalence of domestic violence between arranged marriages [typically refers to marriages arranged by parents or relatives of each member of the couple] and non-arranged marriages[15].

Vietnamese
In a study of 30 Vietnamese women recruited from a civic association that serves Vietnamese women in Boston[16]:

• 47% reported intimate physical violence sometime in their lifetime.
• 30% reported intimate physical violence in the past year.

3. Types of Abuse

Project AWARE (Asian Women Advocating Respect and Empowerment) in Washington, DC, conducted an anonymous survey in 2000–2001 to examine the experiences of abuse, service needs, and barriers to service among Asian women (Project AWARE study, hereinafter). Using a snowball method, a convenience sample of 178 Asian women was recruited[17]:

• 81.1% of the women reported experiencing at least one form of intimate partner violence (domination/controlling/psychological, physical, and/or sexual abuse as categorized by the researchers) in the past year.
• 67% “occasionally” experienced some form of domination/controlling/ psychological abuse; 48% experienced it “frequently” in the past year.
• 32% experienced physical or sexual abuse at least “occasionally” during the past year.
• Of the 23 women who reported not having experienced intimate partner violence themselves, more than half (64%) said they knew of an Asian friend who had experienced intimate partner violence. Smaller proportions of respondents reported that their mothers (9%) and sisters (11%) had experienced intimate partner violence.
• 28.5% of the survey participants knew of a woman who was being abused by her in-laws.

4. Service Utilization

• Berkeley, California: Over 1,000 telephone requests per year were made to Narika, a Bay Area domestic violence help line for South Asian women in 1999 and 2000. Callers included victims of domestic violence, friends and family members calling on the victim’s behalf, and other service agencies/providers requesting information and assistance[18].
• San Francisco, California: Over 4,000 Asian women and children from across the country utilize a range of services provided by Asian Women’s Shelter each year[19]. AWS turns away 75% of the battered women who call for shelter because of lack of shelter space[20].
• Chicago, Illinois: In 2000, 28 API women used shelter services at Apna Ghar, a domestic violence program for South Asian women in Chicago; 106 received legal assistance, counseling, and case management services; and 253 API women called Apna Ghar’s hotline. In 2001, the numbers were 31, 142, and 230 respectively[21].
• New Jersey: 160 South Asian women received services between July 1996 and June 1997 from Manavi, a service program and shelter for South Asian women. The number of women receiving assistance increased to 252 (July 1997 – June 1998) and 258 (July 1998 – June 1999) [22] .
• New York: Over 3,000 women who are abused by their partners (including being bitten, punched, stabbed, shot, threatened with knives or guns, or denied food and money) call the New York Asian Women’s Center for help annually[23].
• Austin, Texas: Saheli (a domestic violence program for South Asian women) received 388 calls in 2000 and assisted 68 cases, providing counseling, referral, and advocacy[24].

5. Attitudes toward Domestic Violence

In a telephone survey of a national random sample of women and men conducted in 1992 by the Family Violence Prevention Fund of San Francisco where 18% of the respondents were Asian (156 Asian women, 161 Asian men) [25]:

• Asian women tended to be less likely to categorize various interactions as domestic violence than women of other ethnic groups.

The Asian Task Force study found that[26]:

• Older Chinese respondents were more tolerant of the use of force and more likely to justify a husband’s use of violence against his wife. Immigration status and level of education were not associated with the likelihood of justifying the husband’s use of violence against his wife.
• The average score for all respondents on male privilege was 8.5 out of 24; for Vietnamese respondents it was 12 out of 24 (the highest score amongst the different ethnic groups in the study). The higher the score, the more an individual believes in male privilege. The average score of 8.5 is a low score indicating that overall, respondents do not believe that a husband has the right to discipline his wife, can expect to have sex with his wife whenever he wants it, is the ruler of his home, or that some wives deserve beatings.
• Cambodian participants of a focus group felt that “surviving the genocide in their native country has left people more vulnerable to stress and depression, which may contribute to domestic violence” in their community.

In a population-based study of a random sample of 211 women of Japanese descent living in Los Angeles in 1995:

• 71% of the respondents reported that their Japanese background influenced their experiences with their partner’s violence. They identified the following aspects of their Japanese backgrounds as having influenced the way they responded to their partners’ violence: conflict avoidance, the value of endurance, acceptance of male domination, the value of collective family welfare, and an aversion to seeking help[27].

In a telephone survey of 31 randomly selected Chinese men and women in the San Gabriel Valley in Los Angeles County[28]:

• Respondents (men and women) overall did not agree with the use of domestic violence as an effective means of solving problems.
• Respondents (15 women and 16 men) tended to agree that physical and sexual aggression (e.g., slapping, pushing, throwing objects, and insisting a spouse have sex) was an indicator of violence between spouses. However, they were less likely to consider psychological aggression or financial abuse as indicators of violence between spouses.
• Respondents were more likely to implicate individual factors (e.g., inability to control one’s temper, inability to talk to one’s spouse) and environmental factors (e.g., job pressure, acculturative stress, alcohol) as the causes of domestic violence; than structural factors (e.g., women working outside the home, breakdown of traditional family roles) and cultural factors (e.g., women’s lower status in Chinese culture, belief that men are the heads of households).

In a study of 20 Vietnamese women (10 were known to be in physically abusive relationships and another ten were not known to be battered) conducted by Bui and Morash in 1999 (Bui and Morash study, hereinafter)[29]:

• 70% of the women reported that their husbands believed that men should dominate women, while 90% of the women believed that men and women should have equal rights in the family.

In the NAWHO study of 336 Asian American women aged 18-34[30]:

• 18% of the respondents did not believe that rape occurs between people who are in a relationship.

6. Attitudes to Seeking Help/Intervention

In the Project AWARE study[31]:

• 45% of the Asian women surveyed reported that they or other Asian women they knew to be abused did “nothing” to protect themselves from abusive events. (The report’s authors noted that “Doing nothing can serve as a strategy of resistance in an attempt [to] avoid or lessen abuse.”)
• 34% sought help from their family, and 32% sought help from friends. Only 16% reported that they or the person they knew to be abused, called the police and 9% actually obtained help from an agency.
• Although the majority of women (78%) who confided in someone about their experience of abuse felt better afterwards, 35% indicated that they felt ashamed.

In the Asian Task Force study[32]:

• 29% of Korean respondents said a woman being abused should not tell anyone about abuse; higher than the rates for Cambodian (22%), Chinese (18%), South Asian (5%), and Vietnamese (9%) respondents.
• 82% of South Asian respondents indicated that a battered woman should turn to a friend for help, whereas only 44% of Cambodian, 37% of Chinese, 41% of Korean, and 29% of Vietnamese respondents agreed with this statement.
• 74% of South Asian respondents supported a battered woman calling the police for help, whereas 47% of Cambodian, 52% of Chinese, 27% of Korean, and 49% of Vietnamese respondents agreed.

The Raj and Silverman study of 160 South Asian women found that[33]:

• 11% of South Asian women reporting intimate partner violence indicated receiving counseling support services for domestic abuse.
• Only 3.1% of the abused South Asian women in the study had ever obtained a restraining order against an abusive partner. This rate is substantially lower than that reported in a study of women in Massachusetts, in which over 33% of women who reported intimate partner violence in the past 5 years had obtained a restraining order.

In the Yoshihama study of Japanese immigrant and Japanese American women[34]:

• U.S.-born respondents, compared to their Japan-born counterparts, were more likely (83% vs. 43%) to seek help from friends; to confront their partners (86% vs. 68%); and to find these methods more effective.
• Japan-born respondents were more likely to minimize the seriousness of the situation as a strategy to cope with abuse (90%) than U.S.-born respondents (58%); and rated this strategy as more helpful than did the U.S.-born respondents (3.1 vs. 2.3 on a four-point scale).
• Although only 19% of women who had experienced partner violence (both U.S.-born and Japan-born respondents) used counseling, those who used counseling reported a high rate of satisfaction with it (3.3 out of 4 points).

In the Bui and Morash study[35]:

• Most women (90%) did not view family violence as a private matter and favored governmental intervention. (Despite this belief, few women called the police when they were abused due to language barriers and fears of husbands being arrested and subjected to racial discrimination.)

7. Abuse Witnessed or Experienced as a Child

In the Asian Task Force study[36]:

• 69% of the overall respondents reported being hit regularly as children. The proportion of respondents who were hit regularly by their parents as children varied slightly across ethnic groups: Cambodian (70%), Chinese (61%), Koreans (80%), South Asians (79%), and Vietnamese (72%).
• 27% of the Vietnamese respondents witnessed their fathers regularly hit their mothers; whereas 15% saw their mothers regularly hit their fathers.
• 30% of Korean respondents reported witnessing their fathers regularly hit their mothers, and 17% reported that their mothers regularly hit their fathers.

In the Yoshihama study of Japanese immigrant and Japanese American women in Los Angeles County:

• 13% of the respondents reported having experienced physical and/or sexual abuse during childhood[37].
• 36.4% of the first generation respondents (those born in Japan and immigrated to the U.S. after age 13), and 13.2% of the 1.5, 2nd, 3rd and 4th generation respondents, reported that their father abused their mother[38].

In the Shimtuh study in the San Francisco Bay Area[39]:

• 33% of the respondents (women and men) recalled their fathers hitting their mothers at least once.

8. Domestic Violence-Related Homicides

• 31% (16 out of 51 cases) of women killed in domestic violence-related deaths from 1993-1997 in California’s Santa Clara County were Asian[40], although Asians comprised only 17.5% of the county’s population.
• 13% of women and children killed in domestic violence-related homicides in Massachusetts in 1991 were Asian, although Asians represented only 2.4% of the population in the state[41].
• 6% of women killed by their abusers in Massachusetts in 1998 were Asian, a four-year low. During the same year requests for services to the Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence increased by 36%[42].
• 63 separate reports of murder and attempted murder of South Asian women in the U.S. and Canada between 1981-2000 were compiled from ethnic and local newspapers (not an exhaustive compilation). Although the majority of victims were women, the women’s children and relatives were also killed in these domestic-violence related homicides, some of which were murder-suicides[43].
• 7 domestic violence related homicides were reported in 2000 in Hawaii[44]. According to the Domestic Violence Clearinghouse and Legal Hotline, 5 of the 7 women killed were of Filipina descent[45]; a disproportionately high rate given that Filipinos represent only 12.3% of the total population of Hawaii[46].

Acknowledgements
Thank you to Dr. Mieko Yoshihama, the intellectual force whose commitment to contextualize data imbues the presentation of these statistics.

[1] This estimate is based on studies of women’s experiences of domestic violence conducted among different Asian ethnic groups in the U.S.; cited in the Fact Sheet on Domestic Violence in Asian Communities compiled by the Asian & Pacific Islander Institute on Domestic Violence. The low end of the range is from a study by A. Raj and J. Silverman, Intimate partner violence against South-Asian women in Greater Boston J Am Med Women’s Assoc. 2002; 57(2): 111-114. The high end of the range is from a study by M. Yoshihama, Domestic violence against women of Japanese descent in Los Angeles: Two methods of estimating prevalence. Violence Against Women. 1999; 5(8): 869-897.

[2]Tjaden P, Thoennes N. Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence: Research Report. Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; July 2000. Available at: http://www.ncjrs.org/txtfiles1/nij/181867.txt, or 800-851-3420 (877-712-9279, TTY).

[3]National Asian Women’s Health Organization. Silence, Not an Option! San Francisco, CA: Author; 2002.

[4]Yoshioka MR, Dang Q. Asian Family Violence Report: A Study of the Cambodian, Chinese, Korean, South Asian, and Vietnamese Communities in Massachusetts. Boston: Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence, Inc.; 2000. Available at: www.atask.org.

[5]Yick AG. Predictors of physical spousal/intimate violence in Chinese American families. J Fam Violence, 2000; 15(3): 249-267.

[6]Hoagland C, Rosen K. Dreams Lost, Dreams Found: Undocumented Women in the Land of Opportunity. San Francisco, CA: Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and Services, Immigrant Women’s Task Force; Spring 1990.

[7]Yoshihama M. Domestic violence against women of Japanese descent in Los Angeles: Two methods of estimating prevalence. Violence Against Women. 1999; 5(8): 869-897.

[8]Yoshihama M, Gillespie B. Age adjustment and recall bias in the analysis of domestic violence data: Methodological improvement through the application of survival analysis methods. J Fam Violence. 2002; 17(3): 199-221.

[9]Yoshihama M, Horrocks J. Post-traumatic stress symptoms and victimization among Japanese American women. J Consult Clin Psychol. 2002; 70(2): 205-215.

[10]Kim JY, Sung K. Conjugal violence in Korean American families: A residue of the cultural tradition. J Fam Violence. 2000; 15(4): 331-345.

[11]Shimtuh, Korean American Domestic Violence Program. Korean American Community of the Bay Area Domestic Violence Needs Assessment Report. Oakland, CA: Author; 2000.

[12]Song-Kim YI. Battered Korean Women in Urban United States. In: Furuto SM, Renuka B, Chung DK, Murase K, Ross-Sheriff F, eds. Social Work Practice with Asian Americans: Sage Sourcebooks for the Human Services Series. Vol. 20. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. 1992; 213-226.

[13]This term refers to those who trace their origins to the countries or diasporic communities of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

[14]Raj A, Silverman J. Intimate partner violence against South-Asian women in Greater Boston. J Am Med Women’s Assoc. 2002; 57(2): 111-114.

[15]Raj A, Silverman J. Unpublished data.

[16]Tran CG. Domestic violence among Vietnamese refugee women: Prevalence, abuse characteristics, psychiatric symptoms, and psychosocial factors [dissertation]. Boston, MA: Boston University; 1997.

[17]McDonnell KA, Abdulla SE. Project AWARE. Washington, DC: Asian/Pacific Islander Domestic Violence Resource Project; 2001. Available at: www.DVRP.org

[18]Narika. Changing Voices. Newsletter, 2001; 1(1). Available at: www.narika.org.

[19]Asian Women’s Shelter: Unpublished internal statistics.

[20]Campbell DW, Masaki B, Torress S. Water on rock: Changing domestic violence perceptions in the African American, Asian American and Latino communities. In: Klein E, Campbell J, Soler E, Ghez M, eds. Ending Domestic Violence: Changing Public Perceptions/Halting the Epidemic. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage; 1997; 64-87.

[21]Email message from K. Sujata, Executive Director, Apna Ghar: March 18, 2002.

[22]Dasgupta SD. Charting the course: An overview of domestic violence in the South Asian community in the United States. J Soc Distress Homeless. 2000; 9(3): 173-185.

[23]Eng P. Domestic violence in Asian/Pacific Island communities: A public health issue. Health Issues for Women of Color: A Cultural Diversity Perspective. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage; 1995:78-88.

[24]Email message from Saheli: March 12, 2002.

[25]Klein E, Campbell J, Soler E, Ghez M, eds. Ending Domestic Violence: Changing Public Perceptions/Halting the Epidemic. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage; 1997: 79.

[26]Yoshioka and Dang. Asian Family Violence Report.

[27]Yoshihama M. Reinterpreting strength and safety in a socio-cultural context: Dynamics of domestic violence and experiences of women of Japanese descent. Children Youth Services Rev. 2000; 22: 207-229.

[28]Yick AG, Agbayani-Siewert P. Perceptions of domestic violence in a Chinese American community. J Interpersonal Violence. 1997; 12(6): 832-846.

[29]Bui HN, Morash M. Domestic violence in the Vietnamese immigrant community: An exploratory study. Violence Against Women. 1999; 5(7): 769-795 .

[30]National Asian Women’s Health Organization. Silence, Not an Option!

[31]McDonnell and Abdulla. Project AWARE.

[32]Yoshioka and Dang. Asian Family Violence Report.

[33]Raj and Silverman. Intimate partner violence against South-Asian women in Greater Boston.

[34]Yoshihama M. Battered women’s coping strategies and psychological distress: Differences by immigration status. Am J Community Psychol. 2002; 30(3): 429-452.

[35]Bui and Morash. Domestic violence in the Vietnamese immigrant community.

[36]Yoshioka and Dang. Asian Family Violence Report.

[37]Yoshihama and Horrocks. Post-traumatic stress symptoms and victimization among Japanese American women.

[38]Yoshihama M. Model minority demystified: Emotional costs of multiple victimizations in the lives of women of Japanese descent. J Hum Behav in the Soc Environ. 2001; 3(3/4): 201-224.

[39]Shimtuh, Korean American Domestic Violence Program. Korean American Community of the Bay Area Domestic Violence Needs Assessment Report.

[40]Santa Clara County Death Review Sub-Committee of the Domestic Violence Council, Death Review Committee Final Report. San Jose: Author; 1997.

[41]Tong BQM. A haven without barriers: Task force is seeking a refuge for battered Asian women. Boston Globe. November 9, 1992; 17.

[42]Malone H. Asian task force encouraged by drop in domestic abuse deaths, group will hold its sixth annual fund-raiser today. Boston Globe. Sept. 25, 1999: B3.

[43]Dasgupta SD. Data presented at the Asian & Pacific Islander Institute on Domestic Violence, National Summit 2002, San Francisco. Summit proceedings available from the Institute at apidvinstitute@apiahf.org.

[44]Hawaii State Coalition Against Domestic Violence . Domestic Violence Deaths in Hawaii, 2000. Honolulu, HI: Author; 2001.

[45]Domestic Violence Clearinghouse and Legal Hotline, Honolulu, HI. Email from Jennifer Rose: April 3, 2002.

[46]The Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism. The State of Hawaii Data Book 2000. Honolulu, HI: Author; 2000. Available at: http://www.hawaii.gov/dbedt/db00/index.html