Outreach to Domestic Abuse Victims during Quarantine

Last registered on April 21, 2020

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Outreach to Domestic Abuse Victims during Quarantine
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0005724
Initial registration date
April 14, 2020

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
April 17, 2020, 1:05 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Last updated
April 21, 2020, 6:58 PM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Primary Investigator

Affiliation

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
London School of Economics
PI Affiliation
London School of Economics

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2020-04-21
End date
2021-11-20
Secondary IDs
Abstract
There is concern worldwide that the coronavirus epidemic will lead to an increase in domestic abuse (DA), as stay-at-home orders force victims to spend more time at home with their abusers. At the same time, there is concern that the reporting of domestic abuse may fall. The result is a greater number of victims, increasingly isolated and without recourse. We are working with Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) to devise an outreach campaign targeted toward women at high risk of domestic abuse, to inform them how they may safely contact police.

To measure the impact of the outreach campaign, we are conducting an RCT that randomly assigns geographic areas with historically high levels of DA calls to treatment and control status. The treatment group is targeted for extra social media advertising that bears the campaign’s message; the control group is exposed only to various national campaigns that are ongoing at the same time. Outcomes to be analyzed include calls for service and calls for service by method during the ad campaign, and post-campaign measures of calls for service and incidents involving violence as measures of recidivism.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Grogger, Jeff, Ria Ivandic and Tom Kirchmaier. 2020. "Outreach to Domestic Abuse Victims during Quarantine." AEA RCT Registry. April 21. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.5724-2.0
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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We devised materials for a Facebook/Instagram (FB) advertising campaign and an associated website. These provide readers with instructions for making reports to police via the Silent Solution, an approach that allows callers to make reports with little if any speaking. To test the effectiveness of the campaign, we will identify a group of postal sectors with high numbers of domestic abuse incidents. They will be randomized into three groups: control, Silent Solution treatment, and alternative treatment TBD. Those in the Silent Solution condition will be targeted for the ad campaign via FB. Pending discussions with MPS, we hope to launch a second treatment condition within a few weeks of the first. That condition would involve a similar FB campaign directing readers to a second alternative means of reaching police.
Intervention Start Date
2020-04-21
Intervention End Date
2020-06-21

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
To measure the contemporary effect of the campaign, we will analyze calls for service regarding DA incidents and calls for service by method (e.g., Silent Solution v. conventional calls). We will track these both during the campaign and for one month afterward. To measure recidivism, we will track calls for service and incidents involving violence for one year after the end of this period.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
We will analyze data from FB regarding the reach of the ad campaign, including number of impressions, clicks, geography, and demographics. We will analyze similar data for our website from Google Analytics.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Our main analysis will be based on the RCT, which involves assigning one-third of the postal sectors in high-risk areas to the Silent Solution treatment condition and one-third to control. We will use a conditional RCT design to identify the intent-to-treat effect of the ad campaign on contemporary calls for service and calls for service by type. We will also use a conditional RCT design to measure the ITT of the ad campaign on recidivism. Depending on the strength of the first stage, we may also use an IV strategy to estimate how calls for service during quarantine affect recidivism. If we are successful in launching a second treatment condition (for which one-third of the postal sectors will be reserved), we will carry out similar analyses of its effects.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Computer
Randomization Unit
Postal sector
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
NA
Sample size: planned number of observations
524 postal sectors
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
175 sectors each to Silent Solution and control; 174 sectors reserved for second treatment condition.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
London School of Economics Research Ethics Board
IRB Approval Date
2020-04-15
IRB Approval Number
REC ref. 1117

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials