Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Domestic violence, also referred to as intimate partner violence (IPV), is a serious under-reported crime in the United States. One in seven men and one in four women will be victims of IPV during their lifetimes.[1] Although 20 people are being physically abused by an intimate partner every minute,[2] with IPV accounting for 15 percent of all violent crimes in the United States (Truman and Morgan, 2014), most cases are never reported to the police (Frieze et al., 1989). This is especially true among immigrants, who fear running into problems with immigration authorities, especially if they are undocumented or reside in a mixed-status household.

In this paper, we explore how immigration policy might affect the reporting and prevalence of domestic violence by focusing on domestic violence homicides. We define domestic homicides as homicides where the offender is a current or former romantic partner or family member. We focus on domestic homicides because of the extent of misreporting in domestic violence –both to the police and medical establishments.[3] Domestic violence homicides represent the culmination of domestic violence offenses, providing us a lower bound estimate of the true impact of the policy on domestic violence. Additionally, since there is no publicly available representative data on domestic violence victims’ immigration status, we focus on Hispanic female victims –a subgroup more likely to contain undocumented women and women residing in mixed-status households.

Using data from the Uniform Crime Report Supplementary Homicide Report and a quasi-experimental approach, we evaluate whether the adoption of sanctuary policies makes a significant difference in domestic homicide rates. Through the adoption of a sanctuary policy, law enforcement agencies reduce the extent of their cooperation with federal immigration authorities. In areas exposed to a higher intensity of interior immigration enforcement, the adoption of a sanctuary policy could prove crucial in ensuring a safe reporting environment for victims.

Preliminary results show that the adoption of sanctuary policies results in lower Hispanic females’ domestic homicide rates in counties exposed to a higher level of interior immigration enforcement. Understanding how domestic violence is impacted by immigration policy is crucial given the expansion of immigration enforcement, the number of individuals impacted by such policies, the prevalence of domestic violence and, not least, its high economic and social cost.[4]

[1] See, for example: http://victimsofcrime.org/docs/default-source/ncvrw2015/2015ncvrw_stats_ipv.pdf?sfvrsn=2

[2] Domestic violence national statistics retrieved from www.ncadv.org

[3] Only 34 percent of victims seek medical care for their injuries (Truman and Morgan, 2014).

[4] More men and women live in mixed-status marriages potentially impacted by immigration policies. Moreover, the physical, psychological and economic costs of domestic violence remain very high, exceeding $8.3 billion/year (Rothman et al. 2007).