The Violence of ProtectionThe Violence of Protection

"Through ethnographic work with legal advocates, The Violence of Protection explores the implications of the Violence Against Women Act, which was celebrated as a feminist victory upon its passage as part of the 1990s crime bill. Yet, as Lee Ann S. Wang explains, most funds distributed through VAWA go to law enforcement agencies, and, in more recent iterations of the legislation, those include agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), who are able to offer temporary visas for undocumented victims of crime, provided they cooperate with law enforcement. The book considers the figure of the Asian American cooperator as another site of violence, working within and beyond existing Asian American feminist paradigms. At the intersection of legal studies, feminist studies, and Asian American studies, The Violence of Protection theorizes the racial assemblage underpinning "victim" as a legal subject used to unfurl policing, and it shows how visas offered to undocumented victims are first a tool of law enforcement and only secondarily protects these victims of gender and sexual violence"-- Provided by publisher.