The main focus of this study is the challenges faced by researches into domestic violence in different ethnic minority communities in the UK, especially South Asian community and African communities. For most women and children from South Asian communities, the traditional values and morals lead to many victims staying silent and not reporting the acts to the police. They may choose not to disclose the domestic situation in order to protect the offenders and maintain the connections between families and community members. Forced marriage, which is the main form of domestic violence against people from ethnic minority groups, is the main topic of discussion in this study. For sufferers of domestic violence in African communities, race and social status result in discrimination and prejudice against them, which makes victims less willing to seek assistance, and causes the consequences to be underestimated and even ignored.

The application and limitation of policies in the UK for protecting the victims are also analysed. As this research had little response and involvement from the communities, it is difficult to collect data to measure the impact of this social phenomenon. And without quantitative research, personal experiences and subjective judgment will also affect the integrity of the results, making the analysis less reliable, and therefore less authentic and convincing.

Domestic violence occurs in intimate families in various ways, and definitely has a bad impact on the victims and even other family members. Physical or sexual abuse, mental cruelty and financial deprivation are all examples of domestic violence. In an analysis about psychological state inside domestic violence by Johnson et al. (2006), the perpetrators are classified as in acritical state, egoistic, and sociopathic. As most people possess these factors it makes it hard to avoid violent actions within families, which leads to 75 percent of people having experienced domestic violence at least once in their life.

There are many negative effects of domestic violence. For instance, the family ties between husbands and wives and their children are challenged. Not only does it damage the family relationships, but it also negatively influences the victims at work.  In the British crime survey, 21 percent of the female victims would take a break from work for a period of time and 2 percent of them even could not get back to work, while the proportion for male victims would be 6 percent and 2 percent respectively (Walby and Allen, 2004).

Speaking of domestic violence, greater importance has been given to physical or sexual abuse instead of psychological and mental maltreatment (Chantler et al., 2009).  In fact, both physical and emotional injuries have more severe impact on female victims than on male victims. The imbalance between sufferers of domestic violence can be clearly seen in several studies. Domestic violence is generally repeated during a relationship, and sometimes will even continue after the end of a relationship. In most cases, domestic violence stops when one partner chooses to leave the family.  But this is not an absolute, as the person who left could still be harassed and stalked by the perpetrators, which could result in continuous physical and psychological damage.

Aside from women, children are the most common victims of domestic violence. However, this can also be underestimated by police, if the offenders are their family members. Descriptions like excessive punishments are often recorded in the files (Hester, 2009). The differences between unsuitable parenting and domestic violence are difficult to measure and define, which makes it hard for the child victims to get enough supports. Children can also be emotionally hurt when they are witness of the domestic violence actions between their parents. Therefore, the negative influences on children, both as victims and witnesses, should not be ignored. The character and mentality of the children who grow up in this kind of family environment may be long-lasting, and even influence how they act towards their children, creating a vicious circle (Holt et al., 2008).

According to researches, most female and the vast majority of male victims who experienced domestic violence in 2003 did not regard the activities as crimes (Walby and Allen, 2004). Correspondingly, 31 percent of women and men with nearly twice more than ratios stay silent and keep the incident inside their families. Triviality, personal affairs, shame, and stigma and fear of reprisal are the primary reasons.   Ethnical faiths and conventions also contribute to this in most ethnic groups.

There are many ethnic groups which have existed in the UK for a long time, such as south Asian and African. Also, as the religious beliefs and customs vary in different ethnic groups, the domestic violence situations are not all alike. The serious domestic violence problems, particularly forced marriage, which is the representative of domestic violence, has been the major concern in those communities.

Moreover, the structural inequality within society against these ethnic minority groups increases the degree of difficulty of seeking help. Race, immigration status, and social status are all variable factors which lead to people of ethnic minorities struggling to get equal treatment. While there are different values and morals among different ethnic groups, the laws and regulations that protect the interests and rights of those people have already been established by the UK government. It is important that these policies are more specifically tailored towards the cultures and mindsets of these communities, so as to help support the victims and encourage them to come forward.

These circumstances increase the difficulties of conducting researches on domestic violence within different ethnic groups. The basis of researches is receiving enough data and genuine responses. But the existing attitudes towards the domestic violence from people inside ethnic minority communities limit their acceptability to public the violent situation outside, which in other words, are challenges that the relevant researches depend on victims who are willing to speak out.

Due to the low status and sexual discrimination of women in the South Asia countries, domestic violence inevitably occurs in multiple ways. It is widespread that many south Asian women are totally dependent on their husbands for living. Inside the south Asian communities, men are mostly responsible for earning money and their wives only need to do the housework and raise their children.

Forced marriage which occurs commonly is the main type of domestic violence in South Asian countries, particularly in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. And in the UK, forced marriage still happens to women in the South Asian communities (FCO and Home Office, 2005). Relative to the social status and educational background of the whole family, parents may make the decision of marriage instead of the girls themselves (Samad and Eade, 2003). Many immigrants from South Asia feel responsible for sustaining the connections within families or the whole community, which pushes them to make use of marriage to achieve it. Coercive marriage and even intermarriage often happens to the female immigrants (Shaw 2001; Samad and Eade, 2003).  In the survey of some South Asian women who immigrated after marriage, most interviewees are positive when they first get married. However, they will feel helpless and despairing after a short time if there are problems emerging in the marriage. The percentage of this situation happening is quite high (Hague et al., 2010).

There could possibly be dreadful consequences for these women after reporting domestic violence acts to police (Hester et al., 2015). The South Asian women may be disregarded or excluded from their own communities if they choose to report the actions or try to end the relationship. And after that, they may face discrimination and racism when they come into society on their own. The girls would have to depend on themselves and would struggle to survive in a totally new environment. However, the serious circumstance is that most of them do not have the abilities to do that.

The factors influencing women’s attitudes and decisions when faced with domestic violence are numerous; they include their level of education, their social status, appearance, current living place and many other actual circumstances (Anitha and Gill, 2009). Honor and shame are the most important principles in South Asian families that are also the constraints influencing the women`s decisions and imprisoning their minds (Gill 2004).  These concepts are significant in persuading the South Asian women to obey their parents’ demands in all circumstances.  Forced marriage at young age could also lead to abandonment of education, which will greatly affect their future life and prospects (Gangoli, 2009).

Domestic violence, for example forced marriage is forbidden in UK and mainly occurs in the South Asian communities (Gangoli and McCarry, 2010).  However, it is often believed that forced marriage is consciously accepted in South Asian communities, which somehow reduces the attention and concern about this problem in the UK (Chantler et al., 2009).  On the other hand, there are also debates about the intrinsic quality of the so-called forced marriages since a great quantity of South Asian women take advantage of the marriages to immigrate to UK. But research suggest that it happens rarely and does not represent the overall situation (Phillips and Dustin, 2004).  Therefore, most European countries would increase the age limit for applying for a spouse visa to alleviate this problem.

Although a lot of African countries are starting to make great efforts towards protecting women’s rights, there are still a few countries holding the traditional attitudes. The physical violence has already raised awareness, while sexual-related abuse is still underestimated and lead to serious consequences for women (Ouattara, 2014). For the black minority ethnic group, the imparity resulting from race, immigrant status, and social position deeply affect women in many aspects. The racism still exists in the whole society in some degree, despite people fighting against it for half a century.

Domestic violence against African women in their communities is a matter that needs attention. The violent actions on both men and women from their partners and families seriously damage their mental and physical health. Forced marriage is also a type of domestic violence in African communities. In a survey carried out by Chantler, Gangoli and Hester (2009), 16.5 percent of African interviewees had experienced or are experiencing forced marriage.

It has been proved that African women are unlikely to get assistance from the community services because the functionaries want to keep away from ethnic prejudice and stereotyped image, which makes them underestimate and ignore the serious problems that may exist in African families (Batsleer et al., 2002).  Therefore, in the study conducted by Hester and Westmarland (2005), several preventions against domestic violent actions have been proposed. They suggested that prevention programmes should be included in school curriculums and also female organizations should raise the awareness of the women and give them strong support when reporting to the police.

Similar to the adults from African communities in the UK who are suffering from domestic violence, children in the same families are also expected to experience it.  They prefer to leave home and live alone when they have the ability to do so (Thiara and Gill, 2010). The mental and physical damages on those children are uncountable, as 250,000 children in the UK will witness domestic violence within 100 days, besides the children who personally experience it. Moreover, according to the study by Sharpen (2009), 79 percent of the female victims will finally choose to run away from their partners, which leaves 34,000 children to seek refuge every year.

Domestic violence has been a main concern of UK agencies for a long time. The Family Law Act 1996, Protection from Harassment Act 1997 and Crime and Disorder Act 1998 are examples of fights against domestic violence. These laws and regulations are aiming to solve those problems (Burman and Chantler, 2005).  The major challenge in policy setting and formulation is protecting the ethnic minority women’s interests without seriously violating ideological and moral concepts of the groups.

Reducing the marginalization towards the minority ethnic groups, especially towards the domestic violence victims, would be necessary for them to integrate into British society. The stress of racism and anxiety of generating racism to the communities for outsiders could be barriers and obstacles which lead to silence and endurance. So from the perspective of the government, the public services should not betray the ethnic minority women while the treatment disparity against different genders and races definitely exists, as that makes them less likely to report the criminal behavior to the officials, (Burman et al., 2004).

However, there are also negative effects from the government enacting these laws and regulations, which may be interpreted as purposely made against ethnic minority groups.  It could even reduce the willingness of people to seek help and report domestic violence, especially forced marriage, to police. Moreover, few South Asian women are aware of the existence of the regulations that could help them, which restricts them from getting support (Gangoli et al., 2006).

When studying a fact or phenomenon, the most important principle is to make sure the research is reliable and convincing. However, there are many challenges on research about domestic violence, during the process of data collection and effective analysis both from an ethical and methodological perspective.

Firstly, the population of minority ethnic communities is much fewer than local residents and European people, so the communities themselves increase the difficulties of conducting researches about them. Furthermore, as discussed previously, the different morals and religious beliefs encourage the domestic violence victims in ethnic minority groups to remain silent and just quietly bear the consequences. Together with the fear of retaliation, their weak position, and their limited capability, the intentions and desires for the victims to disclose the criminal actions are restricted. When the sufferers do not choose to go public, the research results would definitely be affected. The lower degree of involvement and response, and even false answers are going to deviate from the facts and expectations about the status quo of domestic violence.

When speaking of forced marriage in ethnic minority communities, there are many barriers for conducting research, as it is hard to make contact with the victims and get the truth. The South Asian and African people are more conservative than people from other countries. When deciding to go to the police or not about domestic issues, the motivations and impedance are both subsistent for the victims. Obtaining protection and keeping crimes from occurring encourages the sufferers to report to the police, but shame, privacy protection, social class, defense of perpetrators, and dread of retaliation are obstacles for them.

On the other hand, being treated indifferently and being undervalued by the police also could hinder the domestic violence victims when searching for help (Felson, 2002).  The sufferers may choose to keep silent, give up resisting and simply pray that the situation does not get worse.  Moreover, the conceptual difference between arranged marriages and forced marriages is obscure.  Women are ‘possessed’ by their husbands and families in communities where female rights and interests are totally neglected. It may result in the inaction regarding domestic violence in ethnic minority communities (Razack, 2004).

The intention of reporting domestic violence on children has been seriously queried (Turner et al., 2015).  Domestic violence, including forced marriage on young children, especially girls, is similar to adults in ethnic minority communities. When children in South Asian and African communities are still teenagers, they may be forced to drop out of school and get married to people they perhaps have never met before. Since the children are young, they may lack the ability to distinguish between right and wrong. So when researching the domestic violence of these young people, the results would be most likely contain errors, as they want to protect their family members and may not clearly understand the definition of domestic violence.

Those questions generated from the ethnic groups primarily increase the difficulty of data collection about the current status of domestic violence. Most previous research utilized methods such as a questionnaire, face to face interviews, and group talks.  Therefore, to a great extent, the answers would be dependent on the willingness of the victims to disclosure their troubles and their definitions and experiences of domestic violence. According to the research conducted by Gangoli et al. in 2006, the norm of an ethnic community denied the existence of domestic violence as no reports had been made. This could undervalue the seriousness of domestic violence following the extent of publicity. The reliability, credibility, and authenticity of the research would be questioned.

However, by increasing the sample size and diversity, the integrity of the research results would be enhanced. The findings could be inconclusive if only a small number of informants are involved. At the same time, the efficiency of data collection and the validity of data may be decreased in the procedure of such complicated sampling as well. Moreover, adopting horizontal comparison means one is able to compare the occurrence of domestic violence in different communities, such as the severity of forced marriage between the South Asian community and the African community.  But the probability of this happening within a single community is unlikely to be decided as several silent interviewees would lead the results to be an underestimation.  It should also be noticed that the personal safety issues of informants need to be paid close attention in the investigation process. The disclosure of domestic violence may bring in reprisals and painful memories. Furthermore, there is no research about whether the responders have been negatively affected after their involvement in the surveys (Ellsberg et al., 2001).

In research on domestic violence, measurement is unavailable because of considerations and concerns about the statistics. The quantitative method is not effective due to problems in the data collection process, though the qualitative approach is valuable for the analysis of the social phenomenon. A small number of more concentrated samples could help to discuss specifically the nature of domestic violence. Moreover, due to the social impact of the topic, it is difficult to cast aside the personal and psychological deviation, which will seriously affect the analysis decisions. The subjectivity could impair the judgment and analytical ability of both the researchers and the interviewees. It is therefore necessary to make the research impersonal, as preconceived ideas and partial opinions would make the qualitative approach less reliable and authentic.

Domestic violence is unarguably a severe social issue within the ethnic minority communities in the UK. It causes a varying extent of physical and mental damage on the victims, which include men, women, and children. As the study concentrates on the sufferers in South Asian and African communities, the primary sufferers are women and children. As discussed, forced marriage is a major concern for South Asian communities. Parents may make the decision of marriage instead of children, to make profits for the family. Due to the influence of cultural traditions, victims generally accept and bear the consequences. People who desire to report criminal acts hesitate as they may be disregarded and excluded by their family members and are concerned that the imperfect policies in the UK for ethnic minority communities would not help them. For African communities, the violence is underestimated because of discrimination and prejudice by the public. The setting and formulation of polices aiming to solve the domestic violence problems for people within ethnic minority groups should protect their interests and rights without going against their religious beliefs.

Therefore, there are both ethical and methodological challenges for conducting research about domestic violence in ethnic groups. First of all, since numerous victims in South Asian and African communities prefer not to disclose criminal actions because the cultural traditions and discrimination of race, the difficulty of data collection has increased. And lack of enough statistics makes it hard to quantitatively analyze the actual domestic violence situation. On the other hand, although the qualitative method is valuable in studying the social phenomenon, it could easily and unintentionally bring in subjective feelings and judgment, which also makes the research unreliable and unconvincing. Therefore, combining quantitative and qualitative approaches and using horizontal comparison as opposed to vertical comparison could enhance the credibility and integrity of this research. Even though challenges exist in research into domestic violence within ethnic minority communities, effectively utilizing these methods to analyze this serious social problem is still very necessary.