Who is Affected?

While anyone can experience abuse from an intimate partner, factors such as racism, discrimination, immigration status, and poverty can make it more difficult for people of color to find or even ask for help. Some of those factors include: 

• Cultural or religious beliefs that restrain the victim from leaving the abusive relationship or involving outsiders
• Strong loyalty binds to race, culture and family
• Distrust of law enforcement, the criminal justice system and social services

• Women of Color Network's Domestic Violence in Communities of Color
• SCCADVASA's "With Black Women In Mind"
• Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence's Statistics on Violence Against API Women
• NCADV's Facts about Domestic Violence Against American Indian and Alaska Native Women

Abusers may use their partner's immigration status as a way to exert power and control over them. Some examples of this include: 

• Isolation: Abusers may prevent their partner from learning English, or communicating with friends from their home countries. 48% of Latina women who had experienced abuse said the abuse increased when they came to the United States.
• Threats: Abusers may threaten to call ICE on their partner, or withdraw petitions for legal status.
• Intimidation: Abusers may destroy important legal documents such as passports, lawful permanent resident (green) cards, or driver's licenses

• National Domestic Violence Hotline's "Immigrants in the US have the right to live life free of abuse"
• Futures Without Violence's Facts on Immigrant Women and Domestic Violence
• Casa de Esperanza's Immigrant Rights

People in the LGBTQ+ community exprience domestic violence at the same or even higher rates than their straight and cisgender counterparts. Though individuals who harm may use some of the same tactics used in heterosexual relationships, they may also take advantage of homophobia and transphobia to abuse their partners. Some examples of this include: 

• Threatening to out their partner against their will
• Using hurtful slurs associated with being gay, bi or gender expansive
• Physical abusing body parts associated with gender, such as hair, breasts and genitals
• Damaging property associated with gender, such as binders, wigs, makeup or clothes

• PrideLink, Julie Valentine Center and Safe Harbor's Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault Resources in Upstate SC Webinar
• National Domestic Violence Hotline's "LGBTQ Relationship Violence"
• NCADV's "Domestic Violence and the LGBTQ Community"
• Women Against Abuse's "LGBTQ Relationships"
• NCADV's "Who is Doing What to Whom? Determining the Core Aggressor in Relationships Where Domestic Violence Exists."

While anyone can be a victim of intimate partner abuse, people with disabilities are more likely to experience abuse than people without disabililties. Abusers take advantage of the barriers people with disabilities face and use them against them. Some examples of this include: 

• Taking their partner's Social Security disability benefits
• Using hurtful words relating to the disability to shame their partner
• Invalidating their partner's disability by saying things like "it's all in your head" or "you're faking it"

• National Domestic Violence Hotline's "Domestic Violence and People with Disabilities"

While women are typically the ones being abused and men are typically the abusers, there are men who face abuse from their intimate partner. In fact, 1 in 4 men have been physically abused and 1 in 7 men have been severely physically abused by an intimate partner at some point in their lifetime. Men who are abused often feel they cannot seek help due to the stigma associated with being a male victim.

Not only are men sometimes survivors of domestic violence but men can and should play an important role in ending domestic violence. Reach out to Safe Harbor to learn more about how men can help us in the work of ending domestic violence. 

• NCADV's Facts on Male Victims of Intimate Partner Violence
• NCADV's "Who is Doing What to Whom? Determining the Core Aggressor in Relationships Where Domestic Violence Exists."

• 1 in 4 women and 1 in 9 men in the U.S. report experiencing physical abuse from a spouse or intimate partner.

• S.C. ranks 5th in the U.S. for women killed by men. Since 1996 when the Violence Policy Center has kept the statistics of the deadliest states for women, South Carolina has always been in the top ten deadliest states. We have even been #1 several times as recently as 2015.

• Greenville County often has the highest # of reported DV incidents in SC annually.

• The rate of African American women murdered by men is more than twice that of white women.

• 1 in 3 teens report knowing a friend or peer who has been physically abused by a partner.

• Women of color and immigrant women often face additional barriers, such as discrimination or fear of deportation, making it more difficult to seek help.

• NCADV's Domestic Violence Statistics
• National Domestic Violence Hotline's Domestic Violence Statistics
• CDC's Facts and Resources on Intimate Partner Violence

After reading about how discrimination and racism intersect with domestic violence, you may be wondering what you can do. Though the issues discussed on our "Who is Affected?" page are complex, and there are no quick fixes, there are many resources available to help you determine how you can gain support, learn more and be a part of the solution.