Caterina Muratori (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
Secondary victimization, the disbelief, trivialization, and stigmatization of victims who disclose violence, has been widely documented, but little is known about its causal effects on violence dynamics. I study this question using the 2022 U.S. defamation trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, which publicly subjected Heards IPV allegations to ridicule and disbelief both in court and across the media. Because the event was unrelated to underlying IPV dynamics, the trial provides plausibly exogenous variation in public exposure to secondary victimization. Using daily incident-level data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System and a time regression discontinuity difference-in-differences design, I find that IPV reporting fell sharply in the aftermath of the trial. At the same time, IPV prevalence rose significantly, especially in highly misogynistic states, consistent with backlash dynamics in the aftermath of the #MeToo movement.