What does this sentence mean? ( DV and ethnicity related)

[creakingwheels]

Domestic abuse disproportionately affects women from minority ethnic groups due to long-standing structural inequalities, which can have adverse effects on mental health

What do you think this is saying?

Men from minorities are even worse than western men regarding domestic abuse.

Because their cultures are more sexist than ours.

And women are paying the price.

@inkognitha has it spot on

Interesting. I read it differently, and a friend read it differently from both you and I.

I read it the bit about 'adverse mental health, as being about the mental health of the men. And the structural inequalities were in our society, so racist structural inequalities were causing poor mental health in men, which was causing them to commit DV.

@inkognitha and @Devilsmommy How do you interpret the bit about mental health in your analysis? ru lath

This sentence was in a public sector document under a title ' Intersectionality' btw.

I read it similarly to you @creakingwheels - that racism / poverty or similar was exacerbating mental health and in turn resulting in higher levels of DV

Women from some ethnic minorities are are living in a culture where they are silenced from community encouragement not to learn English. They are unable to get help from services as to access the services they have to use their abuser as a translator.

I can't work out if it means the structural inequalities are affecting the perpetrators mental health meaning they are more likely to commit DV or if it's saying the DV is affecting the mental health of the victims?

Or maybe it means neither of those things and I've totally misunderstood

So do you see the 'disproportionate' as not being higher rates of DV, but higher barriers to seeking support to escape DV?

Yes, I read it this way too. It is ambiguous though, I think, as to whether the adverse mental health effects are as a result of the structural inequalities (hence affecting the men), or as a result of the domestic abuse (hence affecting the women).

I read it like this.

Yes, I'd assumed it means the MH of men, as it should be taken for granted that DV affects MH of victims.

I think it means the women's mental health, OP. Try taking out the middle part of the sentence and see how it reads:

"Domestic abuse disproportionately affects women from minority ethnic groups, which can have adverse effects on mental health"

Women are the subject, and so probably the mental health part refers back to them. You are reading it as if it refers back to "structural inequalities, which is possible but less likely, especially since it doesn't really say those are about men - it's vague about what that means or who it effects. Women are the only clear group referenced.

It's not especially well written though.

Indeed, it can be read from another perspective and make sense as well. It is vaguely worded.

But to come back to the reality of it, I ll keep my point of view: these men were not doing the dishes back home and suddenly became sexist and violent here because they suffer from racism in the western world, their original culture is sexist, accepts DV and they just bring it over here.

I think it’s commenting on the women, since there is no mention of anyone else in that sentence.

I think the word “which” with a comma instead of “that” suggests it is the abuse that affects their mental health, rather than the inequality. However, my grammar knowledge isn’t great.

In which case I would read it in the context of the rest of the section of the document in which it appeared, and not try to guess its meaning out of context.

To me it's implying that some ethnicities (not white) have a long-standing embedded sense of sexism and misogyny.

Both can be true.

See, I guess I can't see the point of putting the bit in about it adversely affecting the women's mental health. Of course it does. And it affects white women's health too. That's not something peculiar to women of ethnic minorities, so why include it?. Why not just stop the sentence at 'Domestic abuse disproportionately affects women from minority ethnic groups'.?

Could be either - needs to be clearer.

Could be read that yes ethnic minority men have worse mental health due to structural inequalities (racism, less access to support services, etc) and are therefore more likely to commit DV.

But could also be read that it's not that there are higher rates of DV for ethnic minority women but that if they are affected by DV they are more likely to be affected by the DV due to inequalities (less support, not feeling they can talk to anyone, maybe language barriers) so don't get help, don't leave, etc and are therefore disproportionately affected and have more mental health issues caused by this.

I'm really not sure.

There isn't really any other context in the passage to elucidate what it means.

There is no reference to men from ethnic minorities in that sentence, everyone is making the assumption that the abuse is by men from the same ethnic minority. However, it could be the abuser is white British, and the woman would still find it harder to leave the abuser because of their own background.

Is that paragraph a summary of a longer text? I Googled the text and couldn't find an exact match, but the closest is a shorter version, similar to what you suggest as being the sensible way to express it:

"The research has shown us that domestic abuse disproportionately affects those from a minority ethnic group due to long standing structural inequalities."

Like other posters, I also interpreted it to mean the mental health of the perpetrators of DV.

I think it must mean one of these two. Its really not clear though, is it?

This is true. I had assumed that.

No, its a direct quote from a very small section.