The Iowa State Department of Public Safety is organizing a program that will educate international students about the laws and services available for domestic abuse victims and perpetrators.

“There’s a lot more things going on there than is reported,” said officer Isra Harahap, the organizer of the campaign. “We want to give them information on domestic abuse laws … information so they know what their options are.”

The International Crime Prevention Campaign, made possible through a grant, is designed to “target international students, many of whom are not familiar with the United States’ criminal justice system and are not aware of the services available,” said Loras Jaeger, the director of DPS. Harahap has hired two international students to help him with the program. Together, they plan to set up a focus group and get people from the international community to talk about such issues as domestic violence, sexual assault and harassment.

“The biggest problem we are having is [cases of domestic violence] are not being reported,” Harahap said. “That’s why we want to get this information out.”

DPS answers about three domestic violence calls per week, with the majority of those calls coming from the student apartments where there is a greater proportion of international students, Harahap said.

While DPS answers a number of calls from the international community, that “does not mean the international students are more violent,” Jaeger said.

Many of the domestic violence calls come from the Chinese community.

“We are seeing a lot from the Chinese,” Harahap said. “We also have more Chinese than any other community.”

Yingzi Zhang, a graduate student in Business Administration from China, helped put the problem in perspective. She said she thinks there are abuse cases, but said abuse is linked with education.

“I do think they have abuse cases, especially if the wife doesn’t have a high education. If the wife has a higher education, the statistics go down,” Zhang said.

Zhang explained that a woman with a higher education is usually financially independent. Women who come to ISU to study on their own are less likely to be victims, Zhang said, but that is not always the case.

“I heard one man talk to his wife. The words he used were ‘I’m supporting the family, I’m making the money, you have to listen to me,'” Zhang said, adding that it’s rare to hear a man make such comments. “That’s still very rare, and that’s why that grabbed my attention.”

Xiaoyue Li, a graduate student in Business Administration from China, said the university needs to educate students as to what the American laws and regulations are.

“Let people understand American laws and regulations. When I first was here, I thought, ‘You are an American, you can’t discipline your kids,'” Li said.

Zhang said perceptions of domestic violence among Americans and the Chinese are somewhat similar. “In America, it’s a very family issue. Closed door, you don’t know what’s going on. The Chinese feel that way, too. It’s a family problem, not a social problem,” Zhang said.

In China, wives might also go to their husband’s employer with her problem. Then the boss would counsel the husband, Li said. There are women’s organizations to turn to, he added. In the United States, Li said, legal action seems to be the first option. “If you intentionally beat your wife or not let her wear what she wants to intentionally, repeatedly, that’s domestic violence,” Li said. But that opinion doesn’t coincide with the Iowa laws.

Assault as it is defined under the Iowa Code of Law 708.1 is “any act which is intended to cause pain or injury to, or which is intended to result in physical contact which will be insulting or offensive to another” or “any act which is intended to place another in fear of immediate physical contact which will be painful, injurious, insulting or offensive” or “intentionally points any firearm toward another, or displays in a threatening manner any dangerous weapon toward another,” all coupled with the apparent ability to execute the act.

International students face many additional “stressors” said Harahap.

“Usually, both partners are going to school and most have kids,” he said. Many international students must also work to support their families.

“It just builds up,” Harahap said. “The things they do [to relieve their stress] do not work in the United States.”

Culture shock and pressure from course work also leaves many international students depressed, Zhang said. Sometimes that depression is expressed violently, she said.

Ruth Wright, a staff member and the volunteer program director at the women’s assault care center (ACCESS), said international women face more barriers, which “make[s] it more difficult for them.”

She said they may have trouble with the language and have confusion as far as the laws. She also said international women may not be as exposed to the services offered.

Not being a citizen can also be a barrier for international women who are battered. If the partner who is the batterer is here under a student visa and the victim does not have a visa, the victim could be deported, Wright said.

Lynette Hornung, the sexual assault coordinator on campus, said that oftentimes couples must leave their children in China when they come to Iowa State, causing greater stress.

Harahap said the campaign hopes to provide information to make international students more comfortable in calling DPS for assistance.

Among the possible avenues for spreading the information will be violence prevention fact cards. These cards will contain information and telephone numbers of DPS and ACCESS, as well as domestic abuse myths.

These cards will be posted in laundry areas in the six major languages of the international community. DPS will also provide Domestic Violence Anonymous Reporting Forms, allowing people to report incidents of domestic abuse without identifying themselves or the victim, but still allow the DPS to be aware of occurrences.