Domestic Violence Help-Seeking Behaviors of South Asian Battered Women Residing in the United States
| DOI | 10.1177/026975800701400108 |
| Author | Jay G. Silverman,Anita Raj |
| Published date | 01 January 2007 |
| Date | 01 January 2007 |
lntemational
Review
ofVictimology.
2007,
Vol.
14,
pp.
143-170
0269-7580/07$10
© A B
Academic
Publishers
-
Printed
in
Great
Britain
DOMESTIC
VIOLENCE
HELP-SEEKING
BEHAVIORS
OF
SOUTH
ASIAN
BA
TIERED
WOMEN
RESIDING
IN
THE
UNITED
STATES
ANITA
Wand
JAY
G.
SILVERMAN#*
'
Boston
University,
USA
#Harvard
Upiversity,
USA
ABSTRACT
This
study
was
designed
to
assess
domestic
violence
help-seeking
behaviors
among
battered
South
Asian
women
residing
in
Greater
Boston,
USA.
Prevalence
of
these
behaviors
was
assessed
among
South
Asian
women
reporting
violence
in
their
current
relationship
via
an
anonymous
survey
(N=44).
Forms
and
qualities
of
help-seeking
behaviors
and
needs
were
assessed
via
in-depth
inlerviews
with
a
separale
sample
of
self-identified
ballered
South
Asian
women
(N=23).
Of
the
surveyed
battered
women
(N=44),
23
(52%)
reported
no
acquisition
of
support
or
services
assessed;
no
women
reported
use
of
criminal
justice
services;
and
only
two
had
contacted
a
domestic
violence
program
(5%).
Qualitative
data
(N=23)
indicate
that
when
help-seeking
does
occur,
it
is
elicited
by
increasing
severity
in
violence
and/or
thoughts
of
*
Anita
Raj;
Boston
University
SchoolofPublic
Health,
Boston,
MA02ll8,
USA.
E-mail:
anitaraj@bu.edu.
Jay
Silverman,
Department
of
Society,
Human
Develop-
ment
and
Health,
Harvard
University
School
of
Public
Health.
This
project
was
funded
through
a
grant
from
Boston
University
School
of
Public
Health
(Principal
Investigator:
Anita
Raj).
The
authors
would
like
to
thank
the
following
agencies
for
advising
us
on
this
project
and
assisting
us
with
recruitment:
Saheli
South
Asian
Women's
Support
Network
and
Asian
Task
Force
Against
Domestic
Violence.
The
authors
would
also
like
to
thank
Paromita
Shah,
JD
for
her
guidance
on
immigration
laws
and
Sitara
Nahccd
and
Mala
Suchdcva
for
their
assistance
in
recruitment.
Anita
Raj
is
a
volunteer
with
and
Advisor
to
Saheli,
the
local
South
Asian
CBO
of
volun-
teers
providing
cultural
programs
in
the
South
Asian
community
and
helping
women
in
crisis.
She
has
done
domestic
violence
advocacy
and
community
education
in
the
local
Greater
Boston
South
Asian
community,
and
she
has
served
as
a
South
Asian
Advisor
to
Asian
Task
Force
Against
Domestic
Violence
(ATFADV),
the
local
Asian
domestic
violence
program
serving
New
England.
Both
Saheli
and
Asian
Task
Force
Against
Domestic
Violence
assisted
with
recruitment
for
the
current
study.
Saheli
events
that
were
not
domestic
violence-specific
served
as
venues
for
recruitment
for
the
cross-sectional
survey
study
with
South
Asian
women
in
relationships;
both
Saheli
and
ATFADV
cases
of
domestic
violence
were
referred
to
the
qualitative
study.
144
separation
from
the
batterer;
it
begins
with
help-seeking
within
the
community,
and
the
community
response
includes
helping
link
victims
with
more
formal
domestic
violence
services.
However,
among
women
attempting
to
separate
from
their
batterer,
resource
constraints
at
the
programmatic
level
and
restrictive
immigration
laws
were
cited
as
major
hurdles
they
were
facing
towards
independence.
Findings
from
this
study
attest
to
the
need
for
a
multi-level
approach
to
support
battered
South
Asian
women
in
the
US
that
goes
beyond
the
current
criminal
justice
model
of
intervention.
Keywords:
intimate
partner
violence
-
immigrants
-
South
Asians
-
domestic
violence
services
INTRODUCTION
There is extensive research suggesting that battered immigrant
women
are
less
likely than non-immigrant battered
women
to
seek both informal (e.g., social
support) and
formal
(e.g.
social, medical and legal services)
help
for
domestic
violence (see
Raj
and Silverman, 2002a
for
review).
Barriers
to
immigrant
women's help-seeking have
been
documented
in
diverse immigrant
populations and include linguistic barriers
to
services, cultural taboos against
divorce and disclosure about the
family,
unfamiliarity with domestic violence
services and related laws, and
fear
of
justice system-based responses
jeopardizing their United States (US) immigration standing or
US
residency
(Raj
and Silverman, 2002a). Less
is
known
about the actual help-seeking
behaviors in which battered immigrant
women
do
engage,
particularly among
those remaining in
the
abusive relationship; research that has
been
conducted
suggests that help-seeking behavior varies
by
racelethnicity
and
should
be
studied within
one
cultural group
(Yoshioka
eta/.,
2003).
The
current study
seeks to build
upon
the growing literature in this area through analysis
of
domestic violence help-seeking behavior
among
predominantly immigrant
battered South
Asian
women
residing
in
Greater
Boston,
including both those
remaining in and those separated
from
an
abusive
partner.
The
population
of
South Asian people (i.e., those
of
Asian
Indian, Paki-
stani,
Bangladeshi,
Sri
Lankan, Nepali, Bhutanese, or Maldive Islander ances-
try)
in
the
U.S.
has
more than doubled
in
size in
the
past
decade
and continues
to
grow
at a high rate
(AAFNY,
2004).
Despite this dramatic growth, research
on
this population has been fairly limited. Studies that have
been
conducted in-
dicate
a 20-40% prevalence
of
domestic violence
among
South
Asian
women
in
relationships
(Raj
and Silverman,
2002b,
2003;
Raj
et al., 2005), but this
work
also
suggests that many South
Asian
victims
may
not
be
disclosing
do-
mestic
violence
and
receiving services
(Raj
and
Silverman,
2002b;
Yoshioka
et
a/.,
2003).
A review
of
the literature identifies
five
studies
focused
on
help-seeking
among
battered
South
Asian women residing in the
US
(Abraham,
2000;
Dasgupta and
Wartier,
1996;
Mehotra,
1999;
Supriya,
1996;
Yoshioka
eta/.,
2003).
These studies are limited
to
women
who
have
sought and obtained
South
Asian domestic violence organizational services
and,
often,
to
women
who
have left their batterer;
two
of
the
five
studies
also
have
five
or
fewer
bat-
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