Latina Battered Women: Barriers to Service Delivery and Cultural Considerations (From Helping Battered Women: New Perspectives and Remedies, P 229-234, 1996, Albert R Roberts, ed. -- See NCJ-163226)

• NCJ Number: 163240
• Author(s): G Bonilla-Santiago
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 6 pages
• Sale Source: Oxford University Press, Inc
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Cultural barriers to the provision of social and legal services by battered Latina women are reviewed, based on a comparison of 25 Latina women and 25 white women incarcerated at the Edna Mahan women's correctional facility in Clinton, New Jersey.

Abstract

Domestic violence against women occurs in families from all cultural and ethnic groups, and intervention strategies should accommodate diverse cultural backgrounds of women. Nonetheless, research on cultural aspects of domestic violence against women is limited. Studies have established that the situation of Latinas is different from that of white and black women. In particular, Latinas face barriers related to gender, national origin, and language that also affect their battering experiences. The problems of Latina women are compounded by feelings of vulnerability and helplessness due to lack of available resources, bicultural services, and hospitals and shelters and by cultural isolation. The comparative study of 25 Latina and 25 white women in New Jersey focused on their attitudes toward wife abuse and their perceptions of what constituted abuse. The study also examined cross-cultural issues and aspects of abused Latina women and implications for treatment and intervention. Latina women were more tolerant of wife abuse and their perceptions of what constituted wife abuse differed from those of white women. For example, acts such as hitting and verbal abuse had to occur more frequently to be considered abusive by Latina women. Latina women faced the precarious, often untenable, situation of "double blind" empowerment through the disempowerment of a male member of the community. Internal conflict and external pressure to cast police officials as outsiders and hostile to the community frustrated the development of empowerment among Latina women. The author recommends that social workers and other professionals who provide services to Latina battered women incorporate cultural factors in their intervention strategies and that law enforcement officials be educated regarding the special problems of Latina women. 6 references