Reducing Violence Against Women: Evidence from Specialized Services in Guatemala

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At least one-third of women globally have suffered from gender-based violence. States have instituted a range of programs to mitigate this issue. Scholars argue that judicial or policing interventions often result in unintended costs for victims, while the impact of health-based programs is less understood. I assess the Guatemalan government’s network of specialized sexual violence clinics that serve as `one-stop shops,’ jointly activating a medical and judicial response. I argue that these clinics reduce sexual crimes by signaling enforcement against perpetrators, shifting local community attitudes, and lowering the costs of securing essential services for victims. Using original panel data on crimes and prosecutions and a difference-in-differences approach that leverages temporal and spatial variation, I find that access to clinics lowers sexual violence by 60\%. This is accompanied by increased crime investigation and decreased tolerance of violence against women, suggesting that specialized services can improve women’s physical security in high-violence societies.