Women’s Emergency Centers (Peru)

These are free public centers established in 1999 by the Peruvian Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations. In 2014, there were 226 Women’s Emergency Centers (CEM, for their acronym in Spanish), covering 100% of the 24 regions and 96% of all Peruvian provinces.
They aim to strengthen the judicial system’s ability to detect, prosecute, and support victims of domestic and sexual violence with an interdisciplinary approach that includes legal, social, and psychological dimensions.
Victims receive an integrated service to address their claims, such as a police station, a lawyer, and a doctor, in a single office, to minimize the wait for assistance. Violence records are systematically monitored and evaluated, identifying cases of recidivism.
In addition, violence prevention programs are offered to identify, control, and reduce risk factors.

Impact evaluations

A quasi-experimental study analyzed data from 2006 to 2014 and showed a 10% reduction in domestic violence, women’s deaths from assault, femicides, and improvement in women’s physical and mental health. Following the opening of the centers, their presence was associated with a 7% reduction in women’s deaths from assault and a 10% reduction in mental health hospitalizations. In addition, reporting of gender-based violence cases increased, as did the likelihood of perpetrators being prosecuted for sexual assault, femicide, and rape [1].
Children living nearby were also significantly more likely to enroll and attend school, pass grades, and perform better on national exams, and less likely to drop out of school. No effects were found for males or for specific non-gender-related crimes, such as economic crimes.

Bibliographic reference

[1] Kavanaugh, G., Sviatschi, M. & Trako, I. (2018). Gender Violence, Enforcement, and Human Capital: Evidence from Women's Justice Centers in Peru (World Bank Working Papers Series). https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/400871618254312766/pdf/Gend…

Information source

IDB Inventory