Gender and Violence in Haiti: Women's Path from Victims to Agents

2. Gender-Based Violence in Haiti

34 2 Gender-Based Violence in Haiti Many studies have thoroughly documented the prevalence of violence against women in both industrialized and less-developed societies. A population-based survey conducted in ten countries, including data from over twenty-four thousand informants around the world, revealed that the lifetime chance of physical violence affecting a woman over the age of fifteen ranged from less than 10 percent in Ethiopia, Japan, Serbia, and Montenegro to 62 percent in Samoa (World Health Organization 2005, 43). The chance of sexual violence being perpetrated against a woman over fifteen years of age varied from less than 1 percent in Ethiopia and Bangladesh to between 10 percent and 12 percent in Peru, Samoa, and the United Republic of Tanzania (World Health Organization 2005, 45). Overall, the data revealed that between 19 percent and 76 percent of women around the world had suffered from physical and sexual violence by an intimate partner or a nonpartner since the age of fifteen. Proportional data estimated that, among women who had been physically or sexually assaulted since the age of fifteen, from 60 percent to 80 percent, meaning over two-thirds of them, had been abused by an intimate partner (World Health Organization 2005, 46). Specific data showed that the lifetime chance of physical violence being inflicted by a partner varied between 13 percent and 61 percent from country to country, with the average falling between 23 percent and 49 percent (United Nations 2006, 43). The lifetime chance of sexual violence being perpetrated by an intimate partner ranged from 6 percent to 59 percent, with the rate in GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE IN HAITI 35 most countries falling between 10 percent and 50 percent. Physical and sexual assaults often overlapped with emotionally abusive behavior, which affected between 10 percent and 75 percent of women. Even in industrialized countries such as France and Germany, national studies revealed that 35 percent and 49 percent of women, respectively, had experienced intimidating and emotional aggression by intimate partners (United Nations 2006, 44–45). The chance of sexual abuse being perpetrated against girls younger than fifteen years of age ranged from 1 percent in Bangladesh to 21 percent in Namibia (World Health Organization 2005, 49). Forced sexual initiation affected between 9 percent of girls (in the United States) and 40 percent (in Peru) (United Nations 2006, 49). A Canadian study among teenagers between the ages of fifteen and nineteen revealed that 54 percent of the girls had been sexually coerced in a dating relationship. Findings from the United States in 2000 showed that 22 percent of girls in high school and 32 percent in college had experienced dating violence. Furthermore, about 8.3 percent of women in the United States had been physically or sexually assaulted by a dating partner, and 20.6 percent experienced more than one type of dating violence (World Health Organization 2005, 49). Especially in less developed countries with high rates of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, young girls may face sexual coercion in exchange for food, money, school fees, or little gifts. The rest of this chapter presents findings and testimonies related to specific practices of gender-based violence in the Haitian context, including domestic violence and child slavery as well as political and gang rape. The empirical analysis is supported by a theoretical examination of common patterns of gender imbalance and violence against women and girls. The chapter also explores the connection between female subjugation and abuse in both the private and the public spheres. The Normalization of Gender-Based Violence in Haiti This research study was conducted in the urban slums of Haiti, where available data suggested a high prevalence of sexual violence against girls and women. In the shantytowns of Port-au-Prince, which are characterized by armed violence among rival gangs, an estimated 50 percent 36 GENDER AND VIOLENCE IN HAITI of girls have been victims of rape, often by more than one perpetrator (United Nations General Assembly/Security Council 2006). A study of the factors affecting youth development in Haiti revealed that violence is part of everyday life and that sexual violence is rampant: 46 percent of Haitian girls have been sexually abused, among whom 33 percent are between five and nine years of age and 43 percent between ten and fourteen (Justesen and Verner 2007, 4). Findings from a random survey of households in Port-au-Prince suggested that, between 2004...