Raising abuse awareness for Latinos
Sunday, March 30th, 2008
By Staff
Advocates say many crimes go unreported
With the help of a $300,000 U.S. Justice Department grant, advocates have spent the past two years trying to heighten awareness of domestic violence within Latino communities and encourage immigrants to report crimes.
They seem to have made progress: Police reports of domestic violence among Latino women increased about 9 percent in the past year, from 526 reports in 2006 to 575 in 2007.
But advocates say they still hear of many incidents that never get reported.
The sheriff's office partnership with federal immigration officials could be particularly harmful for illegal immigrant victims of domestic violence because people "who are naturally abusive and who hold power and know how the system works" can easily take advantage of it, said Rona Karacaova, of Legal Aid of North Carolina. Karacaova said her clients often describe how their abusers spoke better English and threatened to report them to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement if they didn't keep quiet. (more…)
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