Violence Against Immigrant Women and Systemic Responses: An Exploratory Study

摘要

The research reported here attempts to fill this gap. It presents the experiences of battered immigrant women who have encountered intimate and family violence and examines the common and unique features of abuse experienced by immigrant women relative to non-immigrant women. It highlights the dynamics of the abuse, the coping mechanisms immigrant women adopt, and their help-seeking behavior. It describes their appeals to the justice system and to legal and social service providers, with a special focus on the way in which immigration status and domestic violence interact within these institutional spheres. The report also details the justice system response to battered immigrant women from the victims/survivors perspectives and from the perspectives of those who attend to their needs--service providers and domestic violence, family, and immigration lawyers.