Women Shelters: The Last Resort Option to Escape From Violence

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the effect of shelters on domestic violence against women and their mental health status by using the variation from the EU-supported project of women shelters to fight domestic violence started in 2012 and implemented in 26 pilot provinces in Turkey. The study uses 2008-2014 data from national research on domestic violence against women. The estimation results show that the project reduced the probability of physical domestic violence against women whose education level is less than college by 2-2.5 percentage points in the treated region. The reduction in the intensity of physical domestic violence is more substantial, around 30 percentage points. Further estimations are conducted to find out the heterogeneous effect on subgroups, the results of which show that the mothers with two and three children benefit most from the project. The effects are even higher for non-working mothers. In addition to the success in physical domestic violence, there are significant reductions in sexual and psychological violence against mothers with 2 or 3 children and non-working mothers. As a result of the reductions in domestic violence, the mental health status of women increased by 2.5 percentage points in the region. The improvements in mental health are greater for mothers and non-working mothers, against whom the reductions in domestic violence are also high. The results show that the shelters did not trigger a male backlash effect in a country where patriarchal attitudes and norms are strong.