A 24-year-old Chinese-American woman, Li Lin, admitted to drowning her 2-year-old daughter in the bathtub after New York City police received the toddler’s autopsy report. The mother faces life in prison for charges of murder, manslaughter and acting in a manner injurious to a child.

The incident happened in a second-floor apartment in Brooklyn, New York. At 8 p.m. on March 13, Li was giving a bath to her two-year-old daughter. She was allegedly angry with her daughter at the time for wetting herself, so Li punishing the girl by forcing her head underwater until she stopped breathing.

The young victim’s parents are Fujian immigrants. Li is a full-time housewife, while her husband has a part-time job in a restaurant. The 2-year-old had just returned to her parents from China. It is reported that Li herself had a tragic childhood, which could have caused psychological damage.

In fact, the problem of domestic violence is widespread. According to a report on the subject published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2014, the majority of juvenile victims are one of three ethnicities: White (44.0 percent), Hispanic (22.7 percent), or African American (21.4 percent).

Luo Shuhua, who has worked at the Child Welfare and Protection Bureau of New York City for more than 28 years, said that every year nearly 50,000 complaints related to child abuse are lodged in New York City. Chinese households account for 3 percent of those cases.

Experts acknowledge that cultural differences, a missing sense of belonging and economic pressures place a lot of burden on overseas Chinese parents. Therefore, parent-child relationships often become more vulnerable in these challenging situations.