Domestic Abuse Outreach in Times of Quarantine:New Method of Non-verbal Reporting

Last registered on May 13, 2020

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Domestic Abuse Outreach in Times of Quarantine:New Method of Non-verbal Reporting
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0005838
Initial registration date
May 13, 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
May 13, 2020, 3:39 PM EDT

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

Locations

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
London School of Economics and Political Science

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
University of Chicago
PI Affiliation
London School of Economics

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2020-05-15
End date
2021-11-01
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 the Greater Manchester Police (GMP) to devise an outreach campaign targeted toward women at 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 in Greater Manchester to treatment and control status. The treatment group is targeted for extra social media advertising that promotes the use of a Live Chat reporting tool; 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, Jeffrey, Ria Ivandic and Tom Kirchmaier. 2020. "Domestic Abuse Outreach in Times of Quarantine:New Method of Non-verbal Reporting ." AEA RCT Registry. May 13. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.5838-1.0
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 Live Chat solution on their website that allows individuals to report crimes and incidents in a text based conversation chat window. We will randomly assign half of postal sectors to treatment and half to control. Those in the treatment condition will be targeted for the ad campaign via FB. The social media campaign will last three months.
Intervention Start Date
2020-05-15
Intervention End Date
2020-08-15

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 of reporting. We will track these both during the campaign and for three months 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. We will analyze survey responses from our website to check the extent of the spillover effects across treatment and control areas.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Our main analysis will be based on the RCT, which involves assigning half of the postal sectors to treatment and half to control. We will use the 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 the 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. Finally, we will use a before-after approach to estimate the extent to which the quarantine affected DA. This analysis will compare the number of calls before quarantine to the number of calls after.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Random assignment will be computerized.
Randomization Unit
Postal sector (United Kingdom)
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
TBD
Sample size: planned number of observations
TBD
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
TBD
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 Committee
IRB Approval Date
2020-05-05
IRB Approval Number
1117b

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