National University of Singapore

Arts & Social Sciences (Global Studies)

AY2017/18 Semester 2
GL4201 | Task Force

Cheryl Cheow Zhi Hui

A0138553B
E1

Individual Essay Assignment

Research question: Given Singapore’s bureaucratic capabilities and resources, why are there

still gaps in the state’s protection of vulnerable women facing intimate partner violence?

Formatting: TNR, font size 12, double spaced

Citation Style: APA (6th Edition)

Word Count: 1479 (including in text citations)

Introduction

Dating violence is a relatively untouched topic in Singapore and a decade ago, there were no

formal campaigns that tackled this issue. Limited research has been conducted about the issue

of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) and much lesser when it comes to dating violence amongst

the younger generation.

In 2009, the voluntary welfare organization ‘Promoting Alternatives to Violence’ (PAVe) had

pioneered the Inaugural dating violence awareness campaign "Choose love, not abuse". It was

a public communication campaign that was conceptualized for the Dating Violence Awareness

Week (DVAW) to reach out to young Singaporeans aged 17 to 25 as a response to the general

lack of awareness about dating violence. Its aim was to increase awareness about dating

violence, including its four different aspects: emotional, psychological, sexual and physical

violence. In addition, the campaign also aimed to increase awareness of PAVe Centre so that

individuals affected would know they can seek help from the specialized counselling centre

(Sing, 2009).

This paper attempts to further analyze the issue of IPV in terms of dating violence in Singapore

amongst unmarried, youth and college students (ages 17-25), and to examine what protection

gaps exist in the political or legal framework that perpetuates such violence against young

Singaporean women. Towards the end, I will also attempt to provide possible suggestions for

interventions such as policy recommendations.

Lit Review – IPV in the Global and Singapore Context

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is defined by WHO (2012) as “any behaviour within an

intimate relationship that causes physical, psychological or sexual harm to those in the

relationship.” According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2016), an

intimate partner is a person with whom one has “emotional connectedness, regular contact,
ongoing physical contact and/or sexual behaviour, identity as a couple and familiarity and

knowledge about each other’s lives.”

Almost one third of all women in the world who have been in a relationship have experienced

physical and/or sexual violence by their intimate partner and these woman report higher rates

of a number of important health problems (WHO, 2013). 38% of all women homicides cases

are committed by intimate partners. It is a global phenomenon with devastating consequences

in families and communities across all settings and among all socioeconomic, religious and

cultural groups. IPV affects women’s physical and mental health either directly, such as injuries

and indirectly, such as chronic or mental health problems that arise from prolonged stress and

trauma. “A history of experiencing violence is therefore a risk factor for many diseases and

conditions” (WHO, 2012).

Studies have shown that there is a connection between dating violence and violence among

married survivors where patterns of behaviour established in the earlier relationship continues

on or progresses to be more severe in the marriage. (PAVe, 2015). It is highly possible that

behaviours of violence during the unmarried phase will continue on in later marriages (Roscoe,

& Benaske, p.423).

In the United States, 1 in 3 adolescents is a survivor of IPV and this figure far exceeds rates of

other types of youth violence (Davis, 2008). The highest rate of IPV experienced was found in

young women between the ages of 16 and 24– almost triple the national average (BJS, 2006).

Another cross sectional study done (Stöckl et al, 2014) compared IPV prevalence in young

women aged 15 to 24 in 9 countries (Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, Namibia, Peru, the United

Republic of Tanzania, Samoa, Serbia, and Thailand). The lifetime prevalence of IPV ranged

from 19-66%, with most countries reporting prevalence above 50% and this age group

experienced the highest recent IPV in the last 12 months of the study.
In terms of Western and Eastern differences, a study (Lin et al, 2015) compared the different

attitudes towards IPV amongst 239 Chinese and 252 American college students. It reported

that in China, 33 % of college students, and 39% of teenagers with dating experience suffered

from IPV. One interesting finding from the study was that social and cultural differences such

as traditionally held patriarchal beliefs in Chinese societies could subject women to be in

subordinate positions that are highly susceptible to violence and have a preference for less

aggressive police intervention in IPV.

Similarly in Singapore context, the population is majority Chinese within a largely patriarchal

society that mirrors Confucian values of hierarchical respect (Tan, 2001), therefore we can

expect similarly to China, there are gendered differences in attitudes towards violence against

women. A study done by local based NGO AWARE (2013) reported that there was a higher

acceptability of sexual violence and conservative views on gender roles remain strong,

especially among men aged 18-29. This finding was also supported by my fellow groupmate

Jefferson who conducted a survey to find out about dating violence attitudes amongst NUS

students (Karthikeyan, 2017).

Another study by AWARE in 2014 also reported that out of the surveyed 500 respondents aged

17 to 25, more than 1 in 3 respondents (35%) reported experiencing sexual violence, including

verbal and cyber-harassment. It was a significant part of young Singaporeans’ social

environment and yet few knew how to seek help. Only 6% of all victims said they sought help

and others cited reasons for not seeking help such as embarrassment, shame, family shame,

disbelief and self-blame. There was also a bystander problem whereby only 1 in 8 respondents

offered help to a victim they knew. There was a demand for formal support through medical,

legal and police assistance and there is also a concern that fewer Singaporeans recognise

psychological violence compared to physical violence.

Overall, due to the complexities of researching IPV, it has been far easier for researchers to

identify correlated factors rather than causal factors. Moreover, the majority of available

research have both conflicting definitions of IPV and populations being affected by IPV, with

some papers only focusing on a certain violence for example. In addition, there is hardly any

statistics that narrow down specifically to dating violence for unmarried Singaporean youths

aged 17-25.

Protection Gaps

Singapore has certain international obligations when it comes to protecting women against

violence. The country has ratified to CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of

Discrimination against Women) and is a party to The Women's Charter, which is a legislative

act passed in 1961 to protect and advance the rights of women and girls in Singapore (MSF,

2018). Under these policy obligations, there are certain protection measures offered such as

POHA (Protection from Harassment Act) since 2014 but it is mostly not helpful to unmarried

people dealing with violence as they cannot apply for a protection order or are covered by the

law as a married woman. An unmarried Singaporean youth facing dating violence may file a

police report, but it is still subjected to police investigations and jurisdiction if the matter is

serious enough to be pursued under the law where the abuser will then be arrested and charged

(John, 2017). However, this whole process is long drawn, requiring witnesses to prove the

offence and offers no protection when such investigations are ongoing. If the case is determined

to be ‘non-arrestable’ the police would then have to wait for a warrant while the victim has to

file for a magistrate complaint instead (John, 2017).

In PAVe's experience, few young women make police reports, and even fewer men are

punished for their assaults. In order to provide this group of victims with legal protection, it

will mean widening the definition of domestic violence in the Women's Charter to include

unmarried people in dating, or looking at other laws that could include these provisions.
Recommendations

The main two key issues we see from our secondary research is that Singaporean youths lack

the knowledge of dating violence and avenues of seeking help and they face difficulties in

being protected by the law. Therefore the suggested policy framework would be catered to such

needs in terms of education and advocacy, as well as collaboration between organizations and

the government.

One way of overcoming the lack of knowledge other than short term platforms of raising

awareness is to introduce dating violence in the curriculum of Singapore’s Sexuality Education.

This program would ensure that majority of the students in Singapore would be educated on

this issue and that educational institutions can be a safe place, where teachers or staff can be

another person to provide help. A similar program was implemented in 2011 in New Jersey,

whereby the NJ state law required all the school districts to include dating violence education

in the health curriculum and to guide administrators and educators in the implementation of

dating violence education programs (NJDOE, 2017).

In terms of collaboration with the government, our Taskforce team is currently awaiting

interviews with the organizations such as PAVe and AWARE to learn what are the difficulties

they may be facing in terms of this partnership in order to diagnose this problem carefully and

then offer our solutions.

References:

1. Association of Women for Action and Research. (2013). AWARE launches We

Can! campaign. Retrieved from http://www.aware.org.sg/2013/05/mostsingaporeans-
will-not-try-to-stop-domestic-violence-survey-shows/ [Accessed 3 Feb. 2018]

2. Association of Women for Action and Research. (2015). Survey: 1 in 3 young people
have faced sexual violence; few seek or receive help. Retrieved from:
http://www.aware.org.sg/2015/03/survey-1-in-3-young-people-have-faced-sexual-
violence-few-seek-or-receive-help/ [Accessed 3 Feb. 2018].

3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2016). Intimate Partner Violence: Data
Sources. Retrieved from:
https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/intimatepartnerviolence/datasources.html

4. Davis, Antoinette, MPH. 2008. Interpersonal and Physical Dating Violence among
Teens. The National Council on Crime and Delinquency Focus. Available at
http://www.nccd-crc.org/nccd/pubs/2008_focus_teen_dating_violence.pdf.

5. John, A. (2017). Smart single women and boyfriends who beat them. [online] The Straits
Times. Available at: http://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/smart-single-women-and-
boyfriends-who-beat-them [Accessed 4 Feb. 2018].

6. Kamimura, A., Nourian, M. M., Assasnik, N., & Franchek-Roa, K. (2016). Intimate
partner violence–related experiences and mental health among college students in Japan,
Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. International journal of social psychiatry, 62(3),
262-270.

7. Karthikeyan, K.R.J. (2017). Preliminary Study of Awareness of and Attitudes Towards

Dating Violence Amongst National University of Singapore Students. Heartbeats:
Journal of the Chua Thian Poh Community Leadership Programme, Volume 4.

8. New Jersey Department of Education. (2017). New Jersey Student Learning Standards:
Comprehensive Health and Physical Education. [online] Available at:
http://www.nj.gov/education/aps/cccs/chpe/dating/resources.htm [Accessed 12 Feb.
2018].

9. Lin, K., Sun, I. Y., Wu, Y., & Liu, J. (2016). College students’ attitudes toward intimate
partner violence: A comparative study of China and the US. Journal of family
violence, 31(2), 179-189.

10. Ministry of Social and Family Development. (2018). International Obligations. [online]
Available at: https://www.msf.gov.sg/policies/Women-Celebrating-
Women/International-Obligations/Pages/default.aspx [Accessed 10 Feb. 2018].
11. Roscoe, B & Benaske, N. (1985). Courtship Violence Experienced by Abused Wives:
Similarities in Patterns of Abuse. Family Relations, 34 (3) 419-424.

12. Sing, K. L. (2009, February 15). ‘We want victims to seek help’. The New
Paper. Retrieved from http://news.asiaone.com/News/Education/Story/
A1Story20090213-121824.html

13. Stöckl, H., March, L., Pallitto, C., & Garcia-Moreno, C. (2014). Intimate partner
violence among adolescents and young women: prevalence and associated factors in nine
countries: a cross-sectional study. BMC public health, 14(1), 751.

14. World Health Organization. (2012). Understanding and addressing violence against
women: Intimate partner violence. Retrieved from http://apps.who.int/iris/
bitstream/10665/77432/1/WHO_RHR_12.36_eng.pdf

15. World Health Organization. (2013). Global and regional estimates of violence against
women: prevalence and health effects of intimate partner violence and non-partner
sexual violence. World Health Organization.

16. Tan, K. P. A. S. S. (2001). Civic society and the new economy in patriarchal Singapore:
Emasculating the political, feminizing the public. Crossroads: An interdisciplinary
journal of Southeast Asian studies, 95-122.