The Impact of Non-Mandatory Police Reporting on Domestic Violence
Can lowering barriers to public services reduce domestic violence? Exploiting the introduction of non-mandatory police reporting laws, I find that police-reported domestic violence declines and intimate partner homicides fall. Consistent with changes in help-seeking and relationship dynamics, assault-related hospitalizations among women increase, relationship dissolution due to abuse rises, and non-fatal violence within intact couples declines. The findings are consistent with a framework in which expanding victims’ outside options reduces escalation and severe violence.
Working paper
Can lowering barriers to public services reduce domestic violence? Exploiting the introduction of non-mandatory police reporting laws, I find that police-reported domestic violence declines and intimate partner homicides fall. Consistent with changes in help-seeking and relationship dynamics, assault-related hospitalizations among women increase, relationship dissolution due to abuse rises, and non-fatal violence within intact couples declines. The findings are consistent with a framework in which expanding victims’ outside options reduces escalation and severe violence.
Working paper