August 20: Giovanna Úbida

Presenter: Giovanna Úbida, FGV-EESP – São Paulo School of Economics

Title: Alternative Justice, Unintended Harms: How Fast-Track Non-Prosecution Criminal Justice Affects Domestic Violence

Abstract: This paper examines the unintended effects of fast-track, non-prosecution criminal procedures on domestic violence against women. Brazil provides an ideal setting for this analysis, as Law 9.099/95 established the Juizados Especiais Criminais (JECrim), which mandated that all misdemeanor crimes, defined by sentencing thresholds in the Penal Code, be resolved through conciliation hearings rather than formal trials. This nationwide reform aimed to improve judicial efficiency by redirecting minor offenses outside the traditional court system. Although gender-neutral by design, the law applied to many domestic violence cases, particularly minor assaults. We exploit variation in pre-reform misdemeanor assault rates across judicial districts to estimate the impact of the policy on female homicide rates at home. Our difference-indifferences estimates indicate that, over the decade following implementation, a district with average baseline exposure experienced an increase of about 0.16 female homicides at home per 100,000 women, corresponding to roughly a 15% rise relative to the pre-reform mean. The results are robust across specifications and highlight how efficiency-oriented legal reforms can produce adverse spillovers when gender dynamics are not explicitly accounted for.