Fragility, conflict, and violence (FCV) have upended development progress. Overlapping and mutually reinforcing crises, including worsening climate challenges, ideological polarization and extremism, growing economic disparities, and weak governance and corruption, have all exacerbated the...

This paper explores the effect of road rehabilitation on violent conflict using a novel, rich dataset of road rehabilitation projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The country received massive external investments in transport infrastructure rehabilitation under conditions of endemic...

Accurate measurement of intimate partner violence is challenging in face-to-face interviews due to concerns about anonymity and privacy, which can deter disclosure. In settings with high illiteracy, self-administered surveys are also impractical. To tackle these issues, this study adapted...

This article develops and tests a theory of criminal governance, examining how drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) use bribery and violence to dominate resource-rich regions and counter state interventions. The study draws on data on over 500 political assassinations and 156 lethal attacks on...

This paper studies the emergence of violence in legal markets, with a particular focus on the informal public transport sector in South Africa, where minibus taxis are integral to urban mobility. Despite being a legal sector, the taxi industry is plagued by significant and persistent violence,...

Elections in fragile democracies are not merely contests over policy but battles for control over state resources, including foreign aid. Aid provides local governments with substantial discretionary funds, creating strong incentives for rent-seeking political actors to capture political office....

Do non-fatal strangulation laws save lives? Non-fatal strangulation (NFS) is a common and dangerous form of intimate partner violence (IPV) and a predictor of homicide, yet it was historically neglected by the criminal justice system. Since the year 2000, most U.S. states have enacted laws...

A cluster-randomized controlled trial in rural Rwanda evaluated a 22-week couples' training program aimed at reducing intimate partner violence (IPV) by shifting gender norms and promoting equitable relationships among Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) members. Contrary to...

The latest edition of the Gender Equality Index, the 2024 edition, highlights the fact that the EU is battling a host of emerging challenges, from increasing effects of climate change and extreme weather events to high geopolitical tensions, rapid digitalisation, volatile political situations...

Gender-based violence against women remains a pressing issue, causing women to flee their countries and seek international protection. At the same time EU+ countries continue to improve safeguards for women and girls within the asylum procedure through policy, legislative, institutional and...

The latest edition of the Gender Equality Index, the 2024 edition, highlights the fact that the EU is battling a host of emerging challenges, from increasing effects of climate change and extreme weather events to high geopolitical tensions, rapid digitalisation, volatile political situations...

Cyber violence against women and girls (CVAWG) is a dimension of violence committed against women and girls that is enabled by the increased use of digital technologies and amplified by the exponential growth of user online presence. Risks for women and girls online are further increased by...

Cyber violence against women and girls (CVAWG) is a dimension of violence committed against women and girls that is enabled by the increased use of digital technologies and amplified by the exponential growth of user online presence. Risks for women and girls online are further increased by...

The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) has developed 13 indicators on intimate partner violence and domestic violence to guide the data collection efforts of the police and the justice sector. EIGE's indicators support EU Member States to measure intimate partner violence and domestic...

We study how drug-related violence affects emigration from Central America, a region with rapidly rising migration to the United States. Using multiple data sources, we apply an instrumental variables strategy based on proximity to drug-trafficking routes and coca production in Colombia. We find...

Violence against children (VAC) has profound and lasting effects on physical and emotional well-being, educational outcomes, and economic productivity. In low- and middle-income countries such as the Philippines, limited longitudinal data hinders researchers from examining the medium- and...

Between 2019 and 2022, Madagascar experienced an acute drought that triggered a chronic food security crisis, drawing justified attention to its nutritional and poverty-related impacts. However, local communities also perceived this period as one of social upheaval, where risks particularly for...

Domestic violence against women remains alarmingly widespread in the EU, with Eurostat data showing that one in three of the 228 million women are affected. The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) has long championed efforts to combat this abuse, first raising the issue in a 2006...

Domestic violence against women remains alarmingly widespread in the EU, with Eurostat data showing that one in three of the 228 million women are affected. The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) has long championed efforts to combat this abuse, first raising the issue in a 2006...

The prevalence and determinants of intimate partner violence (IPV) among older women are severely understudied. This paper documents that the incidence of IPV remains high at old ages and provides the first evidence of the impact of access to income on IPV for older women. We leverage a Mexican...

This paper estimates the impact of violence perpetrated by peers and school staff on student victims. Leveraging unique administrative data from Chile that links reports of school violence to individual educational records, we address longstanding data limitations that have constrained empirical...

We empirically examine the causal impact of women's financial inclusion on their exposure to Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) in India using data from the fifth round of the National Family Health Survey. However, establishing a causal link between women's financial inclusion and IPV is...

Violence is often viewed as an intrinsic feature of illicit markets, driven by competition, disputes, and predation. We argue that the connection between violence and markets is not exclusive to illicit markets and that in the absence of strong institutions these factors exist ubiquitously....

Bullying among children and young people remains prevalent in Ireland and is regarded as an important policy area, with recent initiatives (such as the Department of Education's Cineáltas: Action Plan on Bullying and Bí Cineálta Procedures) to prevent and address school-based bullying. To...

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has become a powerful and effective tool to deal with violence in many at-risk areas in the world. However, its use for gender-based violence (GBV) and dating violence, although promising, has been limited and used as a response service for survivors, rather...

We adapted a violence-prevention, parenting program (the Irie Homes Toolbox, or IHT) for integration into Jamaican preschool services. The adapted IHT was evaluated in a mixed-method feasibility trial in Kingston, Jamaica. Twenty-four preschools were randomly assigned to intervention (n12) or...

Women with disabilities face additional barriers to their socioeconomic participation compared to men, with and without disabilities as well as to women without disabilities, resulting in significant employment gaps and high exposure to gender-based violence. Laws around the world largely fail...

ADVANCE COPY: This chapter is an advance excerpt from the upcoming World Bank report "Organized Crime and Violence in Latin America and the Caribbean" which will be released on Monday, April 28th, 2025

This study examines the five-year impacts of a bicycle distribution program for adolescent girls in rural Zambia, implemented across 91 schools as part of a randomized controlled trial. While the program increased girls' self-reported empowerment and reduced experiences of domestic and intimate...

This study examines the five-year impacts of a bicycle distribution program for adolescent girls in rural Zambia, implemented across 91 schools as part of a randomized controlled trial. While the program increased girls’ self-reported empowerment and reduced experiences of domestic and...

Fatal school shootings often spark support for stricter gun laws, threatening the gun lobby’s influence and agenda. To prevent political fallout, do pro-gun Political Action Committees increase contributions after fatal school shootings? Leveraging a novel dataset of pro-gun PAC contributions...

Using data from over 24,000 respondents in the Norwegian Crime Victimization Survey, we conducted a double list experiment to measure domestic violence (DV). Both list experiments revealed a statistically significant decrease in reporting when including a sensitive DV item. This clear violation...

This policy brief examines how strengthening national action plans (NAPs) on Women, Peace and Security (WPS) by EU Member States - alongside EU and other international instruments - can contribute to building a more comprehensive, coordinated and gender-responsive approach to protecting women...

Every year, 245 million women are victims of intimate partner violence (IPV). Climate change is hypothesized to exacerbate this figure through its disruptive impact on household livelihoods, among other channels. However, little causal evidence exists on this aspect of the climate-gender nexus,...