The following findings are largely based on the qualitative interviews conducted pursuant to this study.
Quantitative data is cited in some places to supplement the qualitative data.
The internationally accepted definition of gender-based violence set forth in the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1993 was used for the purposes of this study. As a general matter, violence within the family may include battery, the sexual abuse of children, dowry-related violence, marital rape, female genital mutilation, verbal abuse, economic abuse, deprivation of financial, social, and emotional resources, female infanticide, and prenatal sex selection. The study found no evidence of dowry-related violence, female genital mutilation, female infanticide and prenatal sex selection in Vietnam. The concept of marital rape appears to be non-existent in Vietnam, but the respondents did report cases of forced sex within marriage. Forced sex occurs when the husband insists that the wife have sex with him despite her explicitly expressing that she does not want to.