BIPOC Survivors

Sexual violence has been used to perpetuate racism and colonialism throughout the history of the United States.

Native American women are twice as likely to experience sexual assault compared to all races, with around 9 in 10 Native American survivors of sexual assault estimated to have had assailants who were of a different race.

African American women experience intimate partner violence at a rate 35% higher than white women, and about 2.5 times the rate of women of other races.

A compilation of multiple studies estimates that 21–55% of Asian women experience intimate partner violence and/or sexual violence in their lifetime.

Approximately 24% of Hispanic and Latina women experience intimate partner violence in their lifetime.
 

Challenges to Reporting and Seeking Support

BIPOC survivors face many additional challenges to reporting gender violence or seeking support, including:

• Experiences of institutionalized racism making it difficult for survivors of color to trust the systems that are supposed to help them
• Language and cultural barriers making it harder for survivors of color to seek support
• Fear their experience will reflect on or confirm stereotypes about their race and/or ethnicity
• Legal status in the US of the survivor and/or the offender
• Lack of service providers that look like the survivor or share common experiences
• Cultural and/or religious beliefs that keep the survivor from leaving an abusive relationship or involving outsiders