Cultural Considerations and Challenges to Service Delivery for Sudanese Victims of Domestic Violence: Insights from Service Providers and Actors in the Criminal Justice System

Abstract

Omaha, Nebraska has recently seen an influx of immigrant refugees from the African nation of Sudan. Domestic violence service providers worry that many Sudanese women are suffering abuse in silence. With lhaL in mind, we identified a number of common obsLacles lhaL immigranl women are likely to face when accessing services for domestic violence. We interviewed victim advocates, criminal justice personnel, and other community-based service providers. Our respondents identified the areas of difficulty they encountered most frequently when working with Sudanese clients. Everyone interviewed agreed that Sudanese cultural norms created barriers to service delivery. Our respondents also discussed the strategies they employed when they provided services to Sudanese women, along with their impressions about how well or how poorly those approaches worked. We present their experiences. their challenges. and their recommendations for the future.

Psychosocial Correlates of Gender-Based Violence Among HIV-Infected and HIV-Uninfected Women in Three US Cities

“…[62][63][64][65][66] Also, there is often under-reporting of IPV, in particular, among immigrant women, largely having to do with structural barriers, cultural barriers, and fears of the US justice system, including possible fears of deportation. [67][68][69] Given this information, it is possible that we were seeing an under-reporting of abuse among our non-US born participants. However, it is also possible that among the current study participants, there is something protective about being born outside of the US, perhaps having to do with social networks and support that do exist among the immigrant women in our study.…”

Sudanese Refugees in Australia: The Impact of Acculturation Stress

“…Domestic violence has become a problem within the Sudanese community with alarming incidents reported of husbands battering wives and children (Australian Police Multicultural Advisory Bureau, 2007). In southern Sudan women expect to be disciplined by their husbands and are not allowed to talk about it, as it is considered a family problem (Keller & Brennan, 2007). In Sudan if they choose to leave their husbands they also have to leave the children; subsequently, many women choose to endure the violence for their sake of the children.…”

Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Women

“…A lack of awareness of services has been noted as a structural barrier to leaving in research with both immigrant (Abu-Ras, 2003;Keller & Brennan, 2007;Moracco, Hilton, Hodges, & Frasier, 2005) and nonimmigrant women (Lutenbacher, Cohen, & Mitzel, 2003;O'Campo, McDonnell, Gielen, Burke, & Chen, 2002;Short et al, 2000). Other structural barriers identified for both groups include experiences of discrimination (Bauer et al, 2000;Latta & Goodman, 2005 with immigrant women; Wolf et al, 2003 with nonimmigrant women) and a lack of financial resources (Bauer et al, 2000;Griffing et al, 2002;Lutenbacher et al, 2003;Murdaugh, Hunt, Sowell, & Santana, 2004;Sullivan et al, 2005 with immigrant women; Wolf et al, 2003 with nonimmigrant women).…”