NCJ Number
150921
Date Published
1994
Length
55 pages
Annotation
Sixty-four women from four different minority-language communities (speaking neither French nor English) share their ideas for responding to wife abuse, for reducing isolation, and for increasing communication across languages and cultures.
Abstract
The women interviewed emphasized that language barriers as well as abuse affect all parts of their lives. They indicated that the abuse they suffered at home could not be separated from the exploitation, isolation, and loss they experienced in all parts of their lives in Canada. The isolating shame and fear of abuse were amplified by their language isolation. Many of the women do not even consider seeking help to stop their abuse, because the help that is available is not only usually linguistically and culturally foreign, but it often takes away the very things that give them strength. The women who did attempt to find help found that the services available did not help them find practical solutions. Some of their suggestions were that their isolation be reduced by promoting group discussions and group meetings, but not just about abuse; that more education and awareness be provided to reflect the values of the community; that services and programs have a problemsolving orientation; and that services for abused women be coordinated through a central agency. Other suggestions include removing the abusive man rather than the women and children from the home and employing service providers who can speak the languages of those in the communities they serve.