Understanding Access Barriers to Public Services: Lessons from a Randomized Domestic Violence Intervention

Martin Foureaux Koppensteiner, Jesse Matheson and Reka Plugor ()
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Reka Plugor: School of Business, University of Leicester

No 2019013, Working Papers from The University of Sheffield, Department of Economics

Abstract: We study the effect of decreasing barriers to accessing non-police services on the demand for police services in cases of police-reported domestic violence. Variation comes from a large case-level randomised control trial designed to assist victims in accessing non-police services. Our data link information from local and national police administrative records, and a survey of victims. The intervention led to a robust 21% decrease in the demand for police services, as measured by the provision of a statement by victims. Despite a strong correlation between statements and criminal sanctions against perpetrators, we do not find a corresponding effect of the intervention on perpetrator arrest, charges or sentencing. This suggests that the victims who do not provide a statement because of treatment had a relatively low statement effectiveness. Consistent with this result, we find treatment group statements are significantly less likely to be withdrawn than are control group statements.

Keywords: Public services; domestic violence; RCT; allocative efficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H75 I18 J12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 58 pages
Date: 2019-07
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http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/economics/research/serps/articles/2019_013 First version, June 2019 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Understanding Access Barriers to Public Services: Lessons from a Randomized Domestic Violence Intervention (2019)
Working Paper: Understanding Access Barriers to Public Services: Lessons from a Randomized Domestic Violence Intervention (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:shf:wpaper:2019013

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