Violence against women and the substitution of help services in times of lockdown: Triangulation of three data sources in Germany

Cara Ebert and Janina Isabel Steinert

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2025, vol. 232, issue C

Abstract: We study the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on domestic violence against women in Germany in 2020. The analysis draws on three data sources: (1) longitudinal administrative data on the volume of help requests to helplines, shelters and counselling services, (2) cross-sectional survey data collected during the first wave of the pandemic, and (3) a qualitative online survey with counsellors and domestic violence experts. The number of violence-related requests at helplines increased significantly by 34% with the first physical distancing measures, whereas ambulatory care services such as shelters experienced a 14% increase in help requests only after physical distancing restrictions were lifted. Our results indicate that individuals substituted help services away from ambulatory care towards helplines. We do not observe exacerbated violence in states with greater mobility reductions, lower day care capacity for childcare or higher COVID-19 infection numbers. Yet, our cross-sectional household-level data suggests that home quarantine and financial distress may have been triggers of violence. Our findings highlight the importance of providing easily accessible online counselling offers for survivors of violence and governmental financial relief packages.

Keywords: COVID-19; Lockdown; Violence against women (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I18 J12 J16 J18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268124004931
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:232:y:2025:i:c:s0167268124004931

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2024.106879

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization is currently edited by Houser, D. and Puzzello, D.

More articles in Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().