What is Intimate Partner Violence?

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a pattern of behavior used by one partner to establish and maintain power and control over another. It occurs across all demographics — regardless of age, education, income, religion, or cultural background — and it manifests in ways that are not always immediately visible.

IPV is not synonymous with physical violence, though physical abuse is one of its most recognizable forms. Understanding the full scope of IPV means recognizing the various ways harm can be enacted — and the ways it can be concealed.

A Few Forms of Intimate Partner Violence

Physical abuse

Any use of physical force that causes injury, pain, or impairment. This includes hitting, pushing, restraining, and denying medical care.

Sexual abuse

Any sexual act, attempt, or coercive behavior directed against a person without their full and free consent.

Emotional and psychological abuse

Behaviors that harm a person's sense of self and reality. This includes threats, humiliation, isolation, constant criticism, and manipulation. Because it leaves no visible mark, it is often minimized — both by survivors and by those around them.

Economic abuse

Controlling a partner's access to financial resources in order to limit their independence and ability to leave. This may include preventing employment, controlling bank accounts, or sabotaging financial opportunities.

Stalking

Repeated, unwanted contact or surveillance that causes fear. Stalking often escalates alongside other forms of abuse.

Prevalence in South Asian Communities

Nationally, an estimated 25–35% of women in the United States experience intimate partner violence during their lifetime. Among South Asian women living in the US, community-based studies consistently report rates of IPV at or above 40%, with some studies finding rates as high as 60% depending on the population and measures used (Raj & Silverman, 2002; Mahapatra, 2012).

This disparity reflects the compounding effects of cultural silence, immigration-related vulnerabilities (including visa dependency), limited access to culturally competent services, shame and stigma within communities, and underreporting driven by fear of community judgment. A 2003 study published in the American Journal of Public Health found that South Asian immigrant women with lower social support and no family in the US were significantly more likely to experience injury from IPV.

It is important to name these factors not to pathologize or inherently fault any community, but because understanding why harm persists in specific contexts is essential to addressing it.

Why Language Matters

Naming a thing clearly is the first step toward seeing it. Many survivors spend years — sometimes decades — without language for what is happening to them. "That's just how he is." "Every couple fights." "I must be too sensitive." The absence of precise language can make abuse easier to deny and harder to leave.

It's Private uses the performing arts as a vehicle for building shared language — because sometimes a story reaches people where a statistic cannot.

If you or someone you know is experiencing intimate partner violence, the National Domestic Violence Hotline is available 24/7 at 1-800-799-7233.

This post is part of the Shared Language Series — a set of definitions and frameworks that inform the research and artistic development behind It's Private.

References

Raj, A., & Silverman, J. (2002). Immigrant South Asian women at greater risk for injury from intimate partner violence. American Journal of Public Health, 93(3), 435–437. https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/10.2105/AJPH.93.3.435

Mahapatra, N. (2012). South Asian women in the US and their experience of domestic violence. Journal of Family Violence, 27(4), 381–390.https://www.researchgate.net/publication/257588518_South_Asian_Women_in_the_US_and_their_Experience_of_Domestic_Violence

Soglin, L.F., et al. (2019). Assessing intimate partner violence in South Asian women using the Index of Spouse Abuse. Violence Against Women, 26(6–7), 697–711. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31053043/

South Asian SOAR. Statistics on gender-based violence in the South Asian diaspora in the US. https://www.southasiansoar.org/gbv-statistics

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Intimate partner violence: Definitions.http://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/31292