Domestic violence reporting during the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from Latin America.

This article examines changes in the frequency and characteristics of domestic violence reports following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the imposition of mobility restrictions in six Latin American countries. We find significantly different patterns between reports of psychological and physical violence, non-cohabitant and cohabitant violence, and across alternative reporting channels (domestic violence hotlines, emergency lines, and police reports). Calls to domestic violence hotlines soared, suggesting that this channel was best suited to respond to victims' needs during the pandemic. In turn, calls to emergency lines and police complaints declined (especially in the first weeks of the pandemic), consistent with an increase in the perceived (relative) cost of using these channels. The results reveal how the pandemic altered domestic violence victims' demand for institutional help and highlight the relevance of domestic violence hotlines as an accessible and valuable service.

Crime under lockdown: The impact of COVID-19 on citizen security in the city of Buenos Aires.

RESEARCH SUMMARY: This paper studies the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown on criminal activity in the City of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Following quarantine restrictions, we find a large, significant, robust, and immediate decline in property crime reported to official agencies, police arrests, and crime reported in victimization surveys. We observe no significant change in homicides, and a significant increase in arrests for "resistance to authorities". The decrease in criminal activity was greater in business and transportation areas, but still large in commercial and residential areas (including informal settlements). After the sharp and immediate fall, crime recovered but, by the end of 2020, it had not reached its initial levels. The arrest data additionally shows a reduction in the distance from the detainee's address to the crime location, and a fall in the number of detainees from outside the City of Buenos Aires. Crime became more local as mobility was restricted. POLICY IMPLICATIONS: We find no evidence that the reduction in the number of detainees from outside the City of Buenos Aires led to a displacement of crimeto suburban areas. This result aligns with the hypothesis that focalized place-based interventions have the potential to reduce overall crime rates. Moreover, the increase in arrests for "resistance to authorities" at the checkpoints set up during the lockdown shows that the enforcement of mobility restrictions can cause frictions between citizens and police, negatively affecting police's legitimacy. We also find that the increased government presence for the provision of health and social services in informal settlements during the pandemic led, as a positive externality, to an additional decrease in crime.

Prevalence and correlates of disability in Latin America and the Caribbean: Evidence from 8 national censuses.

We estimate disability prevalence rates and gaps in social conditions in eight Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) countries and project current and future disability prevalence rates in the region. Using data from representative samples of the population in eight countries, we find that reported disability prevalence varies widely across countries, ranging between 4.5 percent in Trinidad and Tobago (2011) to 24.9 percent in Brazil (2010). Differences in surveying approaches and demographic structures likely explain a part of this variation. We find marked sociodemographic gradients for disability. We also report significant disability gaps: people living with disabilities have lower educational attendance and completion rates and lower employment rates. We use age and sex-specific disability rates from our sample of countries and information on the current and future demographic structures in LAC countries to project disability prevalence for the whole region. We project that the total number of people with disabilities in this region will increase by approximately 60 million between 2020 and 2050. Our projections suggest that countries need to systematically plan and implement inclusion policies to adequately address the growing population of people with disabilities in the years to come.