State Earned Income Tax Credits and Intimate Partner Violence

Employment and income are critical in aiding intimate partner violence (IPV) survivors. The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a strategic anti-poverty initiative, promoting workforce participation. This study investigates the effect of state-level EITC policies on physical IPV incidence. Utilizing data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) spanning 2011 to 2019, we performed a generalized linear model with fixed-effects individual slopes to estimate the relationship between the level of state EITC benefits and state-level IPV rates by quarter. We found that increased state EITC levels were correlated with reduced physical IPV reports to law enforcement.