Care Blocks and Violence Against Women: Evidence from Colombia.

This study examines the impact of Care Blocks on the incidence and severity of domestic violence against women (VAW) in Bogotá, Colombia, at the cadastral zone level. Implemented in 2020, Care Blocks represent the first Care System for caregivers in Latin America and the Caribbean, designed to reduce women’s unpaid care work. Using natural language processing (NLP), we classified VAW calls by risk level and used a difference-in-differences (DiD) approach with multiple time periods to estimate both the frequency and severity of VAW. Our findings reveal complex dynamics between public service provision and VAW reporting. The aggregate results indicate an increase in VAW calls in the post-implementation period of Care Blocks, with no effect on severity. However, disaggregated analysis shows a significant decrease in domestic violence reports in specific areas surrounding the Chapinero and Suba care block facilities. These results suggest heterogeneous effects of the intervention, highlighting the importance of localized analysis in policy evaluation