Domestic Violence (Literature Review)
Domestic Violence, violence or abuse from a romantic partner, is very present in California. Today, Latino or Hispanic females are the larger minority who suffer from domestic violence. Many Hispanic or Latino females in Los Angeles County suffer from sexual assault and homicide and hesitate to report.
Ashley N. Muchow and Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes explain the great concern of Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) in the correlation of Latinos and unreported crimes in “Immigration enforcement awareness and community engagement with police: Evidence from domestic violence calls in Los Angeles”. It is organized in different subjects from Contextual Background to Domestic Violence calls and Immigration Enforcement Awareness. This research was based on data from LAPD from 2014 through 2017 (Muchow 1). They stated background on the population of Los Angeles County; for example, that, “Los Angeles is home to 1.5 million immigrants… the majority are Latino (49 percent) … from Mexico & Central America,” (Muchow 2). Muchow also names past disputes between police and immigrants that are to blame for the decreased reporting rate of domestic violence from Latino immigrants like officers would ask those reporting of their immigrational status (Muchow 2). They also mention that LAPD noticed, “Drops in domestic violence and sex crime reporting,” (Muchow 3). Throughout their article, Muchow and Dorantes presented the evidence collected in different tables and plots to explained how the data supported their beginning statement of LAPD being concerned of low reporting rates among Latinos in Los Angeles.
The article written by Muchow allows the audience to understand their fear in reporting sex crimes. The data in the document presented above explains that Latino women are scared of deportation if they report anything that occurred to them or in there nearby surroundings. As stated above, 44% of Latinos would choose to not report because of their fear to deportation which help comprehend why Hispanic or Latina women decide to not report their aggressors (Muchow 3). Victims would rather keep living with their aggressor free rather than going back to their home country. This study demonstrates the extent women would surpass in order to stay in this country.
Hispanic and Latino females are the largest minority in Los Angeles County that suffer from sexual assault and homicide and in addition hesitant to report it. Citizens and authority should be more aware of the fear that’s integrated in the Hispanic community and act to make them feel as safe to report as other victims.