Three novel methods were designed for the determination of dopamine (DA) by means of the quenching effects on resonance Rayleigh scattering (RRS) and non-linear scattering such as second-order scattering (SOS) and frequency doubling scattering (FDS) intensities. In Britton–Robinson buffer medium (pH 6.02), I 3 − could react with DA to produce I − , which resulted in the decreases of the RRS, SOS and FDS intensities of the ethyl violet (EV)–I 3 − system, and the decreases of scattering intensity (ΔI) were directly proportional to the concentrations of DA in a certain range. The detection limit (3σ) for DA was 0.0195μmol/L for the RRS method, 0.286μmol/L for the SOS method and 0.0985μmol/L for the FDS method, respectively. In this work, the characteristics of absorption, RRS, SOS and FDS spectra of this reaction have been studied; the optimum reaction condition and influencing factors have been investigated. The methods were applied to the determination of DA in pharmaceutical samples with satisfactory results.