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Contribution Details

Type Journal Article
Scope Discipline-based scholarship
Title Effects of COVID‐19 shutdowns on domestic violence in US cities
Organization Unit
Authors
  • Amalia R Miller
  • Carmit Segal
  • Melissa K Spencer
Item Subtype Original Work
Refereed Yes
Status Published in final form
Language
  • English
Journal Title Journal of Urban Economics
Publisher Elsevier
Geographical Reach international
ISSN 0094-1190
Volume 131
Page Range 103476
Date 2022
Abstract Text We empirically investigate the impact of COVID-19 shutdowns on domestic violence using incident-level data on both domestic-related calls for service and crime reports of domestic violence assaults from the 18 major US police departments for which both types of records are available. Although we confirm prior reports of an increase in domestic calls for service at the start of the pandemic, we find that the increase preceded mandatory shutdowns, and there was an incremental decline following the government imposition of restrictions. We also find no evidence that domestic violence crimes increased. Rather, police reports of domestic violence assaults declined significantly during the initial shutdown period. There was no significant change in intimate partner homicides during shutdown months and victimization survey reports of intimate partner violence were lower. Our results fail to support claims that shutdowns increased domestic violence and suggest caution before drawing inference or basing policy solely on data from calls to police.
Official URL https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094119022000535?via%3Dihub
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Digital Object Identifier 10.1016/j.jue.2022.103476
Other Identification Number merlin-id:23434
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Keywords Domestic violence, COVID-19 pandemic, Crime reporting, Police data