October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month

October 3, 2008

Did you know…?

Asian & Pacific Islanders

• 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.

Patricia Tjaden & Nancy Thoennes, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 181867,Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence,at 26 (2000), available at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/pubs-sum/181867.htm; see also Asian & Pacific Islander Institute on Domestic Violence, Fact Sheet: Domestic Violence in Asian Communities, 2005, http://www.apiahf.org/apidvinstitute/PDF/Fact_Sheet.pdf
The National Asian Women's Health Organization (NAWHO) interviewed 336 Asian American women aged 18-34 who reside in the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas, via telephone:

• 16% of the respondents reported having experienced "pressure to have sex without their consent by an intimate partner."
• 12 % of respondents reported that an intimate partner had hurt or had attempted to hurt them by means of hitting, kicking, slapping, shoving, object throwing, or threatening their lives with a weapon.
• 27% experienced emotional abuse by an intimate partner

National Asian Women's Health Organization, Silent Epidemic: A Survey of Violence Among Young Asian American Women, (2002), available at http://www.nawho.org/pubs/NAWHOSilentEpidemic.pdf
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. Using a sample of 178 Asian women:

• 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 or 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.

Karen A. McDonnell & Shamira E. Abdulla, Project AWARE, Asian/Pacific Islander Resource Project (2001).

By Ethnicity:
Cambodians
Chinese
Filipinas
Japanese
Koreans
South Asians