The US and Taiwan may seem like completely different places with completely different cultures, but we both share one thing, an extreme domestic abuse problem. While Taiwan is in a worse state than the US in terms of domestic abuse, their policies are more effective and helpful. Though domestic abuse is a large problem in the US, it’s even bigger in Taiwan, and much of it goes unreported. While Taiwan’s domestic abuse numbers are rising, that may actually be a good thing. At first, while this statement may seem entirely incorrect, it has some truth to it. In Taiwan, domestic abuse has been extremely stigmatized, and reporting it would have little to no effect. This can be very discouraging for women who are victims of sexual assault, so few women would report this. So few women feel comfortable reporting this that crime prevention experts suspect it happens 7-10 times more than what is reported by Taiwan’s Domestic Abuse Hotline. The number rising does not necessarily mean that there is more domestic violence, but that more people feel comfortable reporting it. In 1998, Taiwan passed the Domestic Violence Prevention Act, which was the first act in Asia to prevent domestic abuse and to dispute the idea that marriage was not the government’s affair. This act covers shelter, injury diagnosis and hospitalization, legal assistance, psychological consultation and mental therapy, and the adoption of an advanced civil protection order system that is implemented in the US currently. The chart above shows the amount of calls placed daily to Taiwan’s domestic abuse hotline. Despite an act passed years ago, domestic abuse and violence is still a large problem in the US. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in three American women will be abused by an intimate partner in their lifetime. In 1994, Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act ("VAWA"). This act recognizes that
domestic abuse is a federal crime, and orders the abuser to pay the victim back for medical and psychological care, attorney fees, child care, temporary housing, and any other losses the victim may have suffered as a result of the offense. As shown by the figure to the left, it seems like the act passed in 1994 when domestic violence was at its height has had some effect in lowering the amount of people affected by domestic violence. The US also added onto the Gun Control Act in 1994 to ban guns for domestic abuse offenders. While the US is currently in a better state than Taiwan, Taiwan seems to be doing more to combat the issue. The VAWA of the US mostly covers reparations to the victim after the case has been settled, rather than attempting to combat the issue. The act that Taiwan passed directly helps victims at the time that they are being abused. I think this means that Taiwan’s government is doing better because rather than instructing someone else to help out with fees, the government is directly providing helpful aid to victims. However, the issue in Taiwan currently does seem to be much more serious. Seeing as Taiwan in the graph below is 7-10 times smaller than it should be, the US has the issue more under control.
In terms of domestic abuse, the state of the US is far better than the state of Taiwan. However, Taiwan’s Policies are far more effective at combating this issue. Taiwan has an incredibly high amount of unreported cases of domestic abuse, and as far as I could tell, the reported cases in the US are an accurate representation of the total cases. However, Taiwan’s policies assist victims in their times of need rather than after.
Citations: “NCADV | National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.” The Nation's Leading Grassroots Voice on Domestic Violence, NCADV, ncadv.org/statistics. White, Edward. “Taiwan's Domestic Violence Epidemic: Abuse Reported Every 5 Minutes.” The News Lens International Edition, The News Lens, 19 June 2017, international.thenewslens.com/article/71187. “Taiwan.” U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of State, 25 June 2015, www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2014/eap/236478.htm. “Federal Domestic Violence Laws.” The United States Department of Justice, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, 6 Dec. 2017, www.justice.gov/usao-wdtn/victim-witness-program/federal-domestic-violence-laws. “Global Gender.” globle_gender, Foundation for Women's Rights Promotion and Development, www.globalgender.org/en-global/status_page/index/5. www.justice.gov/usao-wdtn/victim-witness-program/federal-domestic-violence-laws. Leins, Casey. “Sobering Stats for Domestic Violence Awareness Month.” U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World Report, 9 Oct. 2015, www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2015/10/09/sobering-stats-for-domestic-violenc e-awareness-month. “Bureau of Justice Statistics Home Page.” Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), Bureau Of Justice Statistics, www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=dcdetail&iid=245.