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DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
FAIRNESS AND CULTURAL
CONSIDERATIONS
BY SUJATA WARRIER
Asian & Pacific Islander Institute on Domestic Violence
450 Sutter Street, Suite 600, San Francisco CA 94108
Tel: 415.954.9988 x315 Fax: 415.954.9999
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: www.apiahf.org/apidvinstitute
March 2002
Goals Of This Session
 To define the terms culture and cultural competence and
respect the dynamics of difference.
 To identify ways in which culture is relevant.
 To recognize cultural misinformation and avoid
assumptions about a person or the facts of a situation
based on misinformation.
 To identify personal biases that are brought to any
encounter that might influence the interpretation of facts
and making of decisions in domestic violence cases.
Why Should We Consider
Culture?
 Culture shapes an individual’s experience of
domestic violence.
 Culture shapes the batterer’s response to
intervention and acceptance of responsibility.
 Culture shapes access to other services that
might be crucial for the victim.
 The culture of the system and the victim will
impact outcome.
What Is Culture?
 Historically and anthropologically
thought to be a stable pattern of beliefs,
values, thoughts, norms etc.. that are
transmitted from generation to
generation for successfully adapting to
other group members and their
environment.
 The problem is that this is an outdated
definition.
Definition Of Culture
 A critical definition of culture refers to shared
experiences or commonalities that have
developed in relation to changing social and
political contexts, based on:
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race
ethnicity
sexuality
religion
age
class
immigration status
disability status or
other axes of identification
within the historical context of oppression
Cultural Competence Is..
 About both individual and institutional
practice.
 Characterized by the acceptance of and
respect for difference.
 About continuous self-assessments
regarding culture with special attention
to and respect for the dynamics of
difference.
Working Assumptions
IN GENERAL:
 Women and men have the right to live free from violence and the
judiciary can take preventive action against domestic violence.
 Victims have the right to safety and self-determination, which
might include staying with the perpetrator, family and
community or leaving the relationship.
 The batterer is responsible for the violence.
 Domestic violence cuts across race, ethnicity, class, sexual
identity, religious affiliation etc..
Working Assumptions
CULTURALLY COMPETENT ASSUMPTIONS:
 All cultures are contradictory in that there are both widespread
acceptance of domestic violence as part of society and
traditions of resistance.
 Each victim is not only a member of her/his community, but a
unique individual with their own responses. The complexity of a
person’s response to domestic violence is shaped by multiple
factors.
 Each individual comes into the courtroom encounter with
cultural experiences and perspectives that might differ from
those present in the courtroom.
 All institutions have to develop specific policies and procedures
to systematically build cultural competence.
Therefore Cultural Competence
 Approaches the
definition of culture
with a reflective eye
and an open mind.
 Recognizes that
diversity exists both
within and between
cultures.
 Incorporates an
awareness of one’s
biases.
 Combines general
knowledge about
various cultures with
specific information
provided by the
person.
Cultural Identity
 Refers to the way in which a person defines
himself or herself culturally, based on that
person’s unique set of experiences.
 Might contain contradictory, multi-faceted and
often-changing elements. For example:
– a person might identify as Italian and not speak a
single word of Italian,
– a person who grew up working class might now
identify as a white-collar professional,
– a biracial person might identify with both heritages,
– a gay or lesbian might identify with organized religion
that does not accept homosexuality.
Remember ...
 Culture is complex, fluid, changing and bound
by time and space.
 Identities are also bound by time and space and
are usually multifaceted.
Therefore…. Achieving Cultural Competence…..
 Is a challenge and a continuing process.
 There are no simple answers.
Cultural Misinformation
 Refers to historical information about a group of
people that is applied as a generalization to an
individual.
 It limits what we can see and understand about
an individual.
 Associates a set of attributes to a group and
then applies group attributes to an individual of
that group.
 Describes how most people of a group
supposedly behave and how they should
behave.
 Often used to justify mistreatment of individuals
by the dominant culture.
Checklist For Reducing The Influence Of Cultural
Misinformation
 Recognize that it is
impossible to reduce the
receipt of misinformation
about different cultures.
 Examine generalizations
that you hear about
different groups.
 Broaden your
understanding and
sensitivity to other
cultures through a variety
of means.
 Listen to expressions
about stereotypes of
other cultures.
 Gather information from
individual in the
courtroom and evaluate
the information as it
relates to that person’s
experiences.
 Reach beyond your
comfort level.
 Avoid temptation to
generalize - apply only to
the situation in which you
received it.
 Increase your attention to
cultural information.
“World Travelling” method of
Culturally Competency
 Culturally challenging practices require a vision
of independence and connectedness.
 Arrogant perception creates distance between
oneself and “the Other”.
 Preserve the independence of the other while
creating a basis for shared values and for
human rights and dignity.
 “Travelling” is the shift from being one person in
the world to a different person in another world.
 Difference is part of a coherent whole.
“World Travelling” method of
Culturally Competency
 The recognition of independence and
interconnectedness requires:
 understanding oneself in one’s own historical
context with an emphasis on the overlaps,
influences, and conditions one observes in
the other.
 Understand one’s historical relationship to
the other - see the self as the other sees you
 must see the other in their own context.