Immigrant women in Ohio may face more than just cultural barriers-many struggle to place trust in what they see as an unfamiliar and intimidating legal system.

As a result, serious crimes such as physical and sexual assault and domestic violence go unreported.

Detective Sgt. Jim Buchholz at the Oxford Police Department (OPD) said that only 10 percent of all sexual assault incidents are reported.

According to Buchholz, when it comes to crimes against female immigrants, additional hurdles to getting help exist.

"They're going to feel that they will be discriminated against," Buchholz said. "I would think that an immigrant would feel that the system of justice in the U.S. can not adequately protect them."

Buchholz said victims of sexual assault that do report crimes do so with the belief that even if the system fails, the legal system will still take care of them.

Jessica Donohue-Dioh, coordinator of the Alliance for Immigrant Women at the YWCA in Cincinnati, said that immigrants are less likely to report crimes than citizens. Regardless of

immigration status, Donohue-Dioh said across racial, economic, legal status and social lines, women, as a whole, are not reporting 100 percent of the rapes or sexual assaults that occur to them.

According to Donohue-Dioh, these unreported crimes hurt the community in different ways. These criminals are not only left to walk the streets, Donahue-Dioh said, but police departments are prevented from understanding the degree of problems in specific areas. This misinformation not only prevents police departments from receiving the appropriate funding to confront these problems, but it directs attention away from necessary community programming.

Buchholz said he doesn't think citizenship status matters to police when an abuse case is first brought to their attention.

"I don't want to be flippant about this but if you're raped, I'm not going to ask you what nationality you are and if you have a green card," Buchholz said.

While the legal system may not immediately focus on a victim's immigration status, Laura Dickey, Latino outreach director for the Butler County Rape Crisis Program, said the fear of deportation and potentially dividing their families keeps women from coming forward to get help.

"It's in all races, there is that (pride) to keep people from reporting abuse and assault and with immigrants, it's that and the increased fear of being deported," Dickey said.

Donohue-Dioh believes other factors such as news coverage of immigration raids aggravates the already present fear of deportation.

"Crackdowns on 'illegals,' as the news calls them, builds fear," Donohue-Dioh said. "It builds a climate of fear."

Miami University senior Grace Kim said she has second-hand experience with a case of unreported domestic violence involving a female immigrant.

Kim, whose family immigrated to the U.S. from Korea nine years ago, said a Korean woman from her church in Connecticut was physically abused by her American husband for years without reporting the crime to police. Kim said she believes the woman's limited English abilities and mistrust of the police prevented her from reporting the incident.

Kim said another reason domestic violence and sexual assault may go unreported is because immigrant women are scared of not being able to effectively communicate.

Kim said in areas without a strong Korean population, communication fears are particularly intensified.

"It's really regional whether or not (the police station will) have a Korean translator," Kim said. "Oxford, well, they wouldn't have a

Korean translator."

According to Buchholz, Ohio law dictates that all cases involving domestic violence should be handled the same-no matter the race, gender, nationality or ethnicity of the people involved.

Buchholz explained the OPD's first concern is to help the victim; dealing with other issues, such as immigrant status, last.

Perhaps one of the major hindrances for immigrant women is the lack of understanding of legal rights.

Kim said that most female immigrants do not understand that they have the same rights as American citizens, regardless of their legal status.

To address this misunderstanding, Dickey said a large portion of her job is dedicated to community outreach programs that focus on definitions of sexual assault, domestic abuse and explanations of legal rights

to immigrants.

"A victim has rights just as anyone else does and they have the right to be safe in the United States," Dickey said. "I would be very surprised if they knew that."

For Oxford, Buchholz said the sexual assault program focuses on recovery, with police action dictated by the wishes of victims. This process, however, is not without flaws.

"Yeah it sounds great but it's a really hard job for (a) victim to make those decisions," Buchholz said. "It's such an emotional crime and the victims are not always thinking straight. Doing this forces us to properly explain everything that (the police are) going to do."

For Donohue-Dioh, it is possible to eliminate the alienation faced by immigrant women, and through such outlets as community discussions, women may be more likely to come forward and shed light on the abuse.