Police trust and domestic violence among immigrants: evidence from VAWA self-petitions

Legal consciousness of undocumented Latinos: fear and stigma as barriers to claims-making for first- and 1.5-generation immigrants

Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes and Esther Arenas-Arroyo
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Esther Arenas-Arroyo

Journal of Economic Geography, 2022, vol. 22, issue 2, 395-422

Abstract: Domestic violence is a serious under-reported crime in the United States, especially among immigrant women. The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was an attempt to partially address this problem by allowing battered immigrants to petition for legal status without relying on the sponsorship of an abusive U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident spouse. The tougher immigration policy climate may have made immigrant women more vulnerable to domestic violence, as well as more reluctant to report domestic violence to law enforcement. Sanctuary policies, which limit local law enforcement’s cooperation with federal immigration authorities, may counteract these effects. After exploiting the temporal and geographic variation in the adoption of interior immigration enforcement and sanctuary policies, we can successfully identify the impact of sanctuary policies, which help boost the rate of VAWA self-petitions. Additionally, we provide suggestive evidence of the channel through which this impact is likely taking place—namely through victims’ increased willingness to report cases and leave their abusers. Understanding survivors’ responses to immigration policy is crucial given growing police mistrust and immigrants’ vulnerability to crime.

Keywords: Interior immigration enforcement; sanctuary policies; domestic violence; VAWA self-petitions; United States (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J12 J15 J16 K37 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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