Community Empowered Against Silent Epidemics (CEASE): Domestic Violence Project

Note: Documents on this page or in this section may be in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. In order to read them, you require Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is downloadable free from Adobe.

• Purpose
• Available Resources

Purpose:

Data suggests that domestic violence is a silent epidemic in the Southeast Asian American community.¹ In 2000, the Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence produced a report on Asian family violence that found that 39 percent of Vietnamese American women and 47 percent of Cambodian American women surveyed said they knew a woman who had experienced domestic violence. However, despite these findings, most studies and reports on domestic violence in North America have neglected to include or identify Asian American women, particularly Southeast Asian American women, as populations at risk. As a result, many federal, state, regional, and local law enforcement and community health organizations have not prioritized Southeast Asian American communities as targets for preventive education. Furthermore, Southeast Asian American communities have not prioritized this silent epidemic within their own communities either. Southeast Asian American community-based studies suggest that domestic violence may even be more prevalent in Southeast Asian American families because many incidents remain unreported due to the lack of resources dedicated to the issue and the cultural taboos surrounding domestic violence.

SEARAC seeks to increase awareness about domestic violence in the Southeast Asian American communities. The Community Empowered Against Silent Epidemic: Domestic Violence (CEASE DV) project seeks to provide resources to Southeast Asian American communities about the impact of domestic violence. The materials and resources produced as part of the CEASE DV project offers culturally relevant and linguistically appropriate violence prevention information and resources to underserved Southeast Asian American families and community-based organizations (CBOs) through the dissemination of materials that raise public awareness about the prevalence of domestic violence in Southeast Asian American communities.

Available Resources:

SEARAC developed a domestic violence issue brief entitled: Domestic Violence in Southeast Asian American Communities. This issue brief provides information regarding domestic violence within the Southeast Asian American communities. In addition, SEARAC also compiled a database of organizations that are able to provide further assistance and resources regarding domestic violence. All of the organizations in the database provide culturally appropriate services and most provide Southeast Asian linguistic services. This database should serve as a starting point for individuals seeking more information about domestic violence in Southeast Asian American communities as well as providing a resource for individuals who need assistance or are interested in learning more about the issue.

¹ Ho, Christine K. “An analysis of domestic violence in Asian-American communities: A multicultural approach to counseling” (1990). Special issue: Diversity and complexity in feminist therapy: I. Women & Therapy, v9 (n1-2), 129-150.