Domestic Violence in Hispanics in the Southeastern United States: A Survey and Needs Analysis

Exploring Battered Mexican-Origin Women's Help-Seeking Within Their Sociocultural Contexts

“…Still, many studies have documented the rate of intimate partner abuse specifically within the Latino 2 population (Aguilar Caetano, Shafer, Clark, Cunradi, & Raspberry, 2000;Kaufman Kantor, Jasinski, & Aldorando, 1994;Murdaugh, Hunt, Sowell, & Santana, 2004;Neff, Holamon, & Schluter, 1995). While some studies have found that Latino couples experience higher risks of partner abuse, researchers have generally found that racial/ethnic differences dissipate after controlling for the effects of structural variables, i.e., family income, age, and economic stressors (Kaufman Kantor et al, 1994;Neff et al, 1995;Straus & Smith, 1990).…”

“…Intimate female partner violence is a significant problem within the Latino (Caetano et al, 2000;Cunradi et al, 2002;Mattson & Rodriguez, 1999;Murdaugh et al, 2004;National Women's Law Center, 2000;Texas Council on Family Violence, 2003) and Mexican-origin communities (Aldorando, Kaufman Kantor, & Jasinski, 2002;Lown & Vega, 2001). Contrary to the theory of "learned helplessness" (Walker, 1979(Walker, , 1984, from a survivor theory perspective, battered women respond to the threat and occurrence of violence by actively and continuously seeking help to protect themselves (and, if mothers, their children) in a myriad of creative ways (Browne, 1998;.…”

“…However, some studies have documented the severity of partner abuse specifically within the Latino population; these studies have produced disturbing results with prevalence rates as high as 70% (Aldorando et al, 2002;Caetano et al, 2000;Cunradi, et al, 2002;Lown & Vega, 2001;Mattson & Rodriguez, 1999;Murdaugh et al, 2004;National Women's Law Center, 2000). For example, Hogeland and Rosen (1990), working for the Immigrant Women's Task Force of the Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and Services (CIRRS), found that 34% of the immigrant Latinas surveyed admitted experiencing intimate partner violence; of these women, 52% reported they were still living with the batterer.…”

“…Similarly, the National Women's Law Center (2000) estimated the national domestic violence prevalence rate for Latinos to be 54.9%. Murdaugh et al (2004), surveyed 309 Latinos living in the Southeastern US, 62% of whom were born in Mexico and the majority of whom were undocumented, low-income mothers with grade school educations. These researchers found that nearly three quarters of the sample (70%) reported they had experienced an incidence of partner abuse in the previous 12 months.…”

“…Women who are successful in leaving an abusive relationship tend to have received external help in the form of economic resources (Pfouts, 1978;Strube & Barbour, 1983), support services (Strube & Barbour, 1984), aid filing charges (Snyder & Scheer, 1981), and help obtaining a protective order (Snyder & Scheer, 1981). Yet, some services, i.e., shelter and counselor, appear to be perceived as more helpful by battered women than others, i.e., police and emergency rooms (Bowker Some research has documented formal help-seeking efforts of battered Latinas, including their use of medical services, shelters, police, lawyers, and counselors Murdaugh et al, 2004;West et al, 1998). West et al (1998) used data from the National Alcohol and Family Violence Survey (1994) and found that slightly less than half of the battered Latinas surveyed (compared to two thirds of European-American women) had sought outside help.…”