Structural advocacy organizations and intersectional outcomes: The role of Women Police Stations

Abstract

By introducing the concept of ‘structural advocacy organizations’, this study theorizes and tests the boundary conditions within which institutions designed to protect the rights of disenfranchised groups promote structural changes at the gender and race intersection. We test these claims on Brazil’s Women Police Stations, a type of structural advocacy organization with greater female representation on staff, and with specialized procedures and an institutional mandate to address violence against women. The analysis indicates that women police stations reduce homicides among the population of women as compared to conventional police stations. However, homicides committed against women of color only drop in municipalities with high levels of education and in metropolitan areas, but even in these locations, the effects of Women Police Stations on homicide reduction are lower for women of color. The results suggest that structural advocacy organizations innovate to address structural disenfranchisement; nonetheless, improving intersectional outcomes requires complementary policies