Determinants of Lethal and Sexual Violence Against Women: A Cross-Country Analysis of OECD Countries

Violence against women (VaW) is a pervasive global problem affecting both developed and developing countries, regardless of culture, socioeconomic status, education, or race. Designing effective policies to prevent and reduce VaW requires a clear understanding of the mechanisms underlying different forms of violence, particularly physical and sexual violence. This study provides a comparative macro-level analysis of the determinants of these forms of violence using an unbalanced panel of 38 OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries from 2000 to 2018. We estimate panel regressions with country-specific effects and conduct robustness analyses using alternative operationalizations of sociocultural factors. We also test alternative model specifications incorporating different control variables and approaches to address endogeneity. Our findings provide robust evidence that economic conditions, substance abuse, societal violence levels, and potentially cultural factors emerge as significant predictors of physical violence in OECD countries, whereas sexual violence is more strongly associated with substance abuse and, to some extent, lower levels of educational attainment and is highly sensitive to institutional and reporting environments. By distinguishing between objective and reporting-dependent forms of violence, this study highlights the importance of differentiated and context-sensitive policy interventions to more effectively prevent and reduce VaW.