Running Head: Domestic Violence within immigrants

Domestic Violence within immigrants: A literature Review

Anthony Torres
RWS 1302
University of Texas at El Paso

Running Head: Domestic Violence within immigrants

Abstract

Domestic Violence is a problem for people of all races, cultures and genders. The
problem gets worse if the victim however is an immigrant. There are certain factors, which can
include stress and moving locations which can trigger attacks. It is hard for immigrants to get
help because of some of the circumstances like possible deportation, not knowing the area, or
simply afraid of discrimination from the community. Fixing the problem is all about making the
issue aware in as many places as possible and getting the victims in shelters, or speaking to
people who can offer help. Immigrants are targeted more when it comes to domestic violence,
there is not a specific reason for this, however, in the text you may read why. The issue is being
analyzed and reviewed by literature so that if anyone wants information on the topic or to further
their understanding on the topic they may read this paper and get the information in which they
were seeking through the primary and secondary research collected.

Running Head: Domestic Violence within immigrants

Introduction
When hearing about domestic violence, the first thought to come across the mind are not
of two immigrants fighting in their home and then one gets sent hundreds to thousands of miles
away back to a the previous residence outside the country. No, you think of a heated argument
that has gone wrong. Well, the difference between the two is that there are cultural differences
between non-immigrant and immigrant cases. For example, after a dispute of regular citizens the
abuser gets to come home from jail and try to work things out from there, however if you are an
illegal immigrant you are sent back to the residence lived at before entering the country, and stay
there until the whole problem is resolved. Immigrants who are in the country legally, also face
special factors that may make them a target or limit their sources to get help. There are too many
people uninformed about the issue that can be getting help or telling someone who needs it about
the topic. To fix that, domestic violence within the immigrant discourse community, will be
reviewed by the following questions:
1. What are the different types of effects that domestic violence can cause immigrants?
2. What can be done to prevent domestic disputes between immigrants?
3. What are the different resources people can either do or go to, to help with the problem?
4. How can domestic violence be made more aware around the nation.
These questions will give a better understanding of the problem at hand, the effects of the issue,
preventions, and solutions immigrants may turn to. Domestic violence within the immigrant
community has become a growing issue that needs to be recognized for its: effects on the people,
special obstacles, sources for aid, and the awareness of the topic. Otherwise the issue will
continue to grow and ruin the social wellbeing of involved immigrants.

Running Head: Domestic Violence within immigrants

What are the different types of factors and effects that domestic violence can cause
immigrants?
Domestic violence has different types of effects and factors that can severely hurt people.
Immigrants who are involved in domestic violence have these same factors to worry about
and then some. Since immigrants are not like the standard citizen there are certain things to
take into consideration when handling their cases. A number of factors unique to immigrants,
including social isolation, traditional and cultural attitudes about gender roles and violence,
poor financial status, and lack of divorce or employment options for women, have been
known to increase the vulnerability for IPV or Intimate Partner Femicide. Any of these
factors can make a possible abuser irritable or just mad enough to act out violently on the
victim. The different effects domestic violence can cause on an individual can be
emotionally, physically, or socially. This issue can attack the emotions of a victim because if
the person is constantly beat by the one they once loved, then of course they are going to feel
some sort of sorrow. This problem effects everyone physically that is involved in the
altercation, it would not be domestic violence without the physical abuse. Lastly the domestic
violence can effect a person mentally, for example, if an immigrant is beaten very severely or
witnesses someone being beat severely, then they have the risk of being traumatized. Being
traumatized can mean they will never forget the incident, have serious flashbacks or actual
mental problems due to the violence. When an immigrant is put in a position like that, where
they are forced to do something or are physically injured by their significant other, it can
effect a persons social life and the way they complete everyday things. Immigrants have a
chance to stop these effects and factors with certain assessments that are made to predict

Running Head: Domestic Violence within immigrants

when domestic violence is going to happen or if it is already starting to happen this way
people can get fast help and try to prevent any abuse.
What can be done to prevent domestic disputes between immigrants?
In relationships between immigrant couples, or if only one of the individuals was an
immigrant, there are more special factors for domestic violence than in a regular case of
domestic violence. The reason there are more special factors that you have to take in account, is
because immigrants under go more stress with all the things they must deal with. Any person
whether from that region or not can only take a certain amount of pressure and frustration before
they begin to act in a violent manner. Since there are so many special factors with immigrants
involved in domestic violence, it is extremely important trying to fight the factors and prevent
the dispute. Neither of the sources really talks about the preventions, which must mean there may
not be many. However, according to, Culturally Competent Intimate Partner Violence Risk
Assessment: Adapting the Danger Assessment for Immigrant Women (September 1st 2013)
Current risk assessments, such as the Danger Assessment (DA), do not include immigrantspecific risk factors. To engage in culturally competent practice, social workers and advocates
need to identify immigrant women who are in dangerous intimate partner relationships through
the use of risk assessment instruments that have been modified to identify as many of their
particular risks as possible. This means with these assessments, they will try to identify and
execute a prevention based on that persons answers. Even though this may not be a major
prevention, the assessments are still effective. In the image below, it shows a better idea of what
methods are used in the assessment and to assess the new rate of IPV.

Running Head: Domestic Violence within immigrants

Therapy is another good prevention because it allows the people to talk about their stress and
they can get professional advice. The down side about therapy is that it can be pricey for certain
therapists or there may be a communication problem with language depending on the situation.
With domestic violence between immigrants, even the preventions have dilemmas, which makes
the issue hard to solve. Domestic violence breaks all sorts of people apart, no matter the gender
or race, which is why in the image below you can see that the symbol for women is broken. With
the preventions having their own problems it is very easy to fall victim to domestic violence, and
fixing that is like putting something together that broke into many pieces like the figure shown
below.

Running Head: Domestic Violence within immigrants

What are different resources people can go to or what other types of help might they get?
Once domestic violence has occurred, to an immigrant or not, help needs to be found. It
may be difficult for immigrants to find help in some areas because they do not know the region
and cannot make their own way around. However, there is hope, with our new technology in the
world there are several effective ways to get help after an attack. This is true because if an
immigrant has a phone or cell phone they can call a hotline, which has multiple service reps for
easier communication if one does not know multiple languages, that can assist the person in
need. There are even some hotlines that have people who work like therapists, to talk things out
and give verbal support. The hotlines are very effective because they give the immigrants
comfort and a structure to start rebuilding off of. As well as talking to the immigrants, they can
point the person in the direction of an actual shelter or center for domestic violence. To get a
better understanding of the resources and help people actually recieve, an interview has been
held. The name of this interview has been called Preventions for Different People of Domestic

Running Head: Domestic Violence within immigrants

Violence. The research was conducted in a quiet, yet secure place so that the interviewee felt ok
to give information. According to my source, Mercedes Woods, hotlines and shelters are what,
kept her friend going. Mrs. Woods lived with the victim for a couple months, and had
informed me she had seen numerous incidents of abuse and arguing. When asked about the types
of help her friend was getting for this, Mercedes exclaimed that at first she did not know about
any resources besides the hospital, and when she asked her friend to go to the E.R. her friend
stated that she was not yet a citizen and had no insurance to get help. It was not until the victim
heard of a shelter by word of mouth from , that was only 45 minutes away, until she went there.
It was her safe haven according to Mrs. woods. Mercedes also talked about how it became easier
for her friend to get away from the abusive partner the more she went to go to the shelter. Soon
she became strong enough and had enough confidence to finally leave that broken relationship,
Mercedes explained. It is very good that Mercedes friend ended up getting away, however she
should not have had to went through what she did for it. Just how that girl felt, could be how any
other immigrant girl or boy, involved in domestic violence feels. Battered and ashamed is no
way for any person in any community to feel. If she could be made aware of the resources she
could be getting, then others can too, but domestic violence needs to be made more aware all
around the nation first in order for there to be more resources to the problem.
How can domestic violence be made more aware for immigrants in the U.S.?
Domestic violence has no doubt been heard of around the states, but just how well do you
know the issue? Did you know the issue is often worse for immigrants? Is there advocacy
commercials or posters in every city? Are the different genres of rhetoric, that are used to
promote advocacy, transmitted in areas where there are many immigrants, and will the language
be translatable? If there are policies that are put out in order to protect men and women, they

Running Head: Domestic Violence within immigrants

need to be translated, so everyone can understand and cooperate with the new rules. In a video
seen during research, I seen how other people want the problem to be heard more about and how
they have been trying to make the issue known in their own city. The community gets together
to hold an annual run/walk that is against domestic violence and all the money raised goes to a
group who tries to help overlooked victims. The video itself is very powerful because it is trying
to make the viewer aware of the problem in other places, and understand the message that
victims can be overseen. Other than the message the video was prevailing, what is in the video
itself is extremely effective, where thousands of people come out to support victims in domestic
violence those who are immigrants and not shows a lot to the people of that community and may
make them decide to come forth to get help. This also, relates to the topic of domestic violence
with immigrants because most of the time, the over looked victims are immigrants. The
immigrants who are overseen are afraid to come forward on their own or other factors help hide
their situations to where no one notices something is wrong before it is too late. There are
hundreds of other awareness videos to domestic violence, however if they are not presented in
the right way or in the right places they will not work or be effective. However one thing that
helps a lot is the internet. Many people go onto the internet daily, if you know what to search
then getting aware of the situation will be easy. On the internet there are also many visuals that
are trying to make domestic violence aware, for regular victims and immigrant ones. The image
below is an example of one of those visuals which has symbols and signs used to promote the
fight against domestic violence for immigrants. The figure is easy to understand and can reach
out to many immigrants because it has a globe which shows that the fight is for any person in
any place dealing with domestic violence. The language in the picture as well shows that people

Running Head: Domestic Violence within immigrants

are trying to make the problem more aware for immigrants and others that may not understand
English.

Running Head: Domestic Violence within immigrants

Conclusion

Domestic violence is an issue that has swept the nation, effecting people of all
communities, some more than others. When you hear about a dispute between two people, your
first thought is not of an immigrant. However immigrants have it the worse as told, in the text
above. Making the issue aware is very important to its take down, with the issue known, the
immigrants or any victim for that matter knows about the preventions, factors contributing to
attacks and the support sources to for those who have already been through an incident with
domestic violence. On the other hand, if people do not get the problem aware, domestic abuse
will begin to increase, peoples wellness will begin to decrease along with immigrants and a
functioning community. The graphics in the text are very good with getting the problem heard
along with other videos and images, used around the nation in the fight against the domestic
violence. This will be a never ending fight, however domestic violence is decreasing and with
more effort by people it may someday come to a close halt.

Running Head: Domestic Violence within immigrants

References

Messing, J. T., Amanor-Boadu, Y., Cavanaugh, C. E., Glass, N. E., & Campbell, J. C.
(2013). Culturally Competent Intimate Partner Violence Risk Assessment: Adapting the
Danger Assessment for Immigrant Women. Social Work Research, 37(3), 263-275.

USA: Domestic violence by immigrant men. (1994). Women's International Network

News, 20(1), 42.

Researchers work internationally to solve domestic violence puzzle. (1997). Nation's

Health, 27(1), 19.

Smith, R. L. (2008). Immigrant wife abuse often a hidden shame. Christian Century,
125(19), 20-21.

Mercedes Woods (3/30/2016) Primary research

WGNTV(producer) MIKE LOWE (author) October 25, 2015 Making strides to help out
often-overlooked victims of domestic violence, WGN Evening News

Sylvia M. Asay (January 11, 2011) Awareness of Domestic Violence Within the
Evangelical Community: Romania and Moldova