Coming Out of the Darkness: Towards a Better Understanding of Intimate Partner Violence in the Asian and Pacific Islander Communities

It is often acknowledge that the pervasive bondage of intimate partner violence (IPV) transcends all racial, cultural, and socio-economic backgrounds. The Asian and Pacific Islander (API) community is no exception. Unfortunately the API community is often overlooked by researchers and practitioners in the field as “at risk” for IPV. The limited studies that do focus on the API community have indicated a high prevalence of IPV with as high as 41-60% of API women experiencing some form of IPV (physical, emotional, sexual, and financial) during their lifetime. Furthermore, 21% of API women have a history of child sexual abuse and 25% of these same women are later raped as adults. Disturbingly, API women are the least likely to report rape victimization. Of the API women that are physically or sexually abused, 97% have never utilized any rape or physical abuse services such as a rape crisis center or shelter within their communities, while 19% of them not even knowing about the services available to them. With the technical assistance of Women Organized Against Rape, a Philadelphia rape crisis center, this study identified 14 distinct barriers to disclosure and service utilization of API women who experience IPV. While this study identified distinct barriers, it also identified various intervention/prevention models of IPV that are exculsive to the API community. IPV should no longer be a secret in the API community. Coming out of the darkness and acknowledging the existence of IPV is the first step towards healing and rehabilitation.