Trends in Trauma: Increasing rates of sexual and domestic violence among female Latin American asylum seekers

The last ten years of scientific research analyzing asylum-seekers' mental health has established high rates of trauma exposure and associated posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as well as trauma-related distress throughout the migratory trajectory (Bianco 2019;Mercado et al. 2024; Mercado and Venta 2022;Rosenberg 2019).However, there remains a gap in identifying unique types of traumatic experiences among asylum-seeking women (Torres et al. 2022).Amid international calls to identify and prevent sexual assault and related crimes against asylumseekers (Riva 2017; Rosenberg 2019), the purpose of this study was to identify the frequencies of sexual violence and domestic violence among asylum-seeking women from Central and South America at two humanitarian respite centers and a tent encampment on both sides of the U.S. -Mexico Border using data from three independent studies.Data was collected from three studies in 2016 (Study 1), 2019 (Study 2), and 2023 (Study 3).Visual trends identified a peak in domestic violence in 2019, a relatively stable frequency of sexual assault rates across the three studies, and a downward trend in Study 3 compared to Study 1 for all types of gender-based violence except for domestic violence.Age stratification revealed diverse patterns in trauma rates.Trends in domestic violence differed between the 18-25 (56%) and 26+ age groups (70%), in one study, substantially higher than prevalence the 29% rate among U.S. female community samples.The data highlight the need for immigration reform addressing women's human rights and provide insights for mental health service providers to promote trauma-informed care amid increasing rates of sexual crimes and domestic violence in this vulnerable immigrant group.