At their fingertips: What is the impact of online reporting of domestic violence?

Abstract

Global reports indicate that 307 million women have suffered physical or sexual intimate partner violence during the last 12 months. Yet, chronic underreporting of domestic violence (DV) is still a reality in the United States and worldwide. The process of going to a police station and reporting DV is extremely burdensome, leading to numerous psychological effects on the victim and lost opportunity cost of stopping the violence cycle. This study investigates the impacts of bypassing police contact by enabling online reporting and requesting of protective orders (POs) in Brazil. Through novel databases and by using a Synthetic Control, I find that online reporting of DV led to a 29.5% increase in the average monthly requests of POs. This translates to roughly 373 new requests of POs. Implications of these findings are discussed.