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Abstract:  The SeRO project provides the first systematic investigation of how local violent crime affects sexual and reproductive health. The project builds on an innovative mixed-methods approach to study the case of Mexico, where the War on Drugs policy has dramatically increased levels of violence. This presentation introduces a study about how local violent crime affects pregnancy outcomes (abortion, miscarriage and stillbirth) in the Mexican context. We combine nationally representative individual-level surveys, administrative data from fetal death certificates, and monthly municipality-level homicide rates. We find that exposure to local violent crime is positively associated with non-live pregnancy outcomes, specifically during the first trimester, with stronger associations for longer exposure windows. Further, higher municipality-level homicide rates are associated with fewer registered fetal deaths. These results suggest that miscarriage and abortion are more common in more crime-affected municipalities, thus resulting in fewer stillbirths.

The Sociology Seminar Series for Hilary Term is convened by Zachary Parolin and Carlo Perrotta. For more information about this or any of the seminars in the series, please contact sociology.secretary@nuffield.ox.ac.uk.