This article explores battered immigrant women's use of protection orders.
This article explores battered immigrant women's use of protection orders. It presents an exploratory view of battered immigrant women's knowledge of protection orders, the reasons leading them to file for protection orders, the remedies they sought in the protection orders, their views on what would improve the process of obtaining protection orders, and their experiences with the violations of protection. One hundred and fifty-three abused immigrant women were recruited from agencies serving immigrants and interviewed by advocates they knew. The results showed that, like women from other marginalized populations, battered immigrant women were unaware of protection orders as legal remedies. Other results showed some commonalties between battered immigrant women's experiences and abused women from mainstream cultures in the United States. However, unique factors such as immigration-related abuse and the unpreparedness of the justice system to serve abused women with diverse needs require further research and more appropriate personnel training and policy. Abstract published by arrangement with Sage Journals.