Domestic Violence and Services

Prevalence of Domestic Violence in the Deaf Community

The absence of research on violence against Deaf women wrongly implies that domestic violence [Page 324]is a non-issue in the Deaf community. This assumption has been disproved by a handful of recent prevalence studies. Some research suggests that rates of domestic violence are similar among deaf and hearing women. However, a number of studies are accumulating that suggest prevalence rates of psychological, physical, and sexual violence against deaf college students and community women are significantly higher when compared with their hearing peers. Whereas it is often reported that 25% of general population women experience domestic violence in their lifetimes, estimates within the Deaf community are closer to 50% (see Further Readings for more information). It should be noted that prevalence rates across these studies vary greatly, a finding that is common in hearing research as well. This difficulty in pinpointing the exact prevalence in violence is often due to inconsistency in definitions used to identify occurrences of domestic violence across studies. Regardless of the exact prevalence of violence, this collection of studies suggests that domestic violence occurs at approximately double the rate within the Deaf community compared with the general population.

Correlates of Domestic Violence in the Deaf Community

Why might deaf women be at higher risk for experiencing domestic violence than hearing women? One possible reason is that individuals in the Deaf community may be more likely to exhibit risk factors for domestic violence than their hearing counterparts. A number of research studies have found that domestic violence is more common among couples dealing with poverty, limited education, and unemployment. Deaf individuals, like many members of other minority communities, often experience cultural, language, communication, and literacy barriers that have complex demographic, socioeconomic, and behavioral health consequences. Due to these factors, deaf individuals are more likely than hearing individuals to be poorer, less educated, and unemployed, suggesting the possibility of higher rates of violence against members of this community.

Additionally, deaf individuals often experience language and communication barriers to developing health literacy—the ability to obtain, process, and understand health information that is necessary to make informed health care decisions. Deaf individuals may have less complete medical knowledge due to limited family contact and communication, reductions in incidental learning, lack of knowledge of personal and medical history, and the lack of health education programs provided in ASL. Due to these factors, Deaf ASL-users have been found to display poorer knowledge of the dangers of sexual contact with drug users and multiple sexual partners, as well as less knowledge regarding HIV/AIDS. Similarly, findings from both clinical and research settings suggest that many deaf individuals lack information on what constitutes domestic violence, the acceptability of such violence, and alternative strategies to resolve conflict. A recent study on domestic violence among deaf female college students found that over 50 percent of the sample did not label their experiences of psychological aggression and physical assault as “abuse,” even when these experiences included severe harm. Similarly, more than half of the survivors did not label sexual coercion perpetrated by their partner as an abusive act. Unfortunately, this trend is also widespread in the general hearing community, with the majority of college rape survivors choosing not to label their experiences as “rape” or “victimization.” Rather, these survivors struggle to define their experiences at all, or label these experiences as “miscommunication,” “seduction,” or “bad sex.” Indeed, research on sexual assault among deaf college students has suggested that high rates of sexual assault within this population may be partially attributed to limited sexuality education and knowledge provided before leaving high school.

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