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Feminist sociologists and activists have drawn attention to how violence against women is linked to structural and cultural factors that subordinate women, mainly intersecting inequalities and limited rights. Mobilization by the Battered Women’s and Anti-Violence Movements, media attention, legislation, and policy have increased awareness and support to address violence against women. However, activists and researchers have also critiqued the problems with invoking the power of the state. The authors interrogate the role of the state in addressing domestic violence, especially in the context of immigration in the neoliberal era. More specifically, they examine how domestic violence, as legal and policy discourse, has been framed in Canada and the US, and the resulting forms of intervention. Through a critical literature review the authors show how this framing impacts immigrant and racialized women facing domestic violence. The article highlights problems and gaps in the respective discourses, as well as indicates possibilities for change.

This article focuses on a discussion of some of the norms around sexuality and their implications for sexual abuse of South Asian immigrant women. Based on the narratives of abused South Asian immigrant women, it explains how women define and understand their own experiences of sexual abuse. The article examines three forms of sexual abuse: (a) marital rape and sexual assault, (b) sexual control through manipulation of reproductive rights, and (c) sexual control through the construction of the “sexual other.” Sexual abuse by significant others besides the husband in the immigrant context is also briefly discussed.

II.

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