Battered Immigrant Women and the Legal System: A Therapeutic Jurisprudence Perspective*

Abstract

Battered immigrant women face tremendous barriers to using the U.S. criminal justice system to respond to the violence in their lives. These include various social, economic, cultural, and legal restrictions as well as hardships, which deter immigrant women from seeking relief. For those women who overcome these barriers and do access the system, there are additional problems to solve in order to obtain help. The multifaceted obstacles can create antitherapeutic effects for these women, thereby reducing their current and future use of the system. Using a therapeutic jurisprudence framework, we propose a series of policy recommendations and interaction strategies for working with battered immigrant women in culturally appropriate, empowering ways. The recommendations call for changes to criminal justice system procedures and require collaborative working relationships among legal practitioners, the professionals, and advocates who work with immigrant women and populations. We argue that a therapeutic jurisprudence approach endorsed by all parties involved may enhance battered immigrant women’s willingness to access the justice system, minimize the system’s anti-therapeutic effects, and maximize its therapeutic impact on this vulnerable group.

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