Patrones espaciales de la violencia familiar en México durante el confinamiento por COVID-19

This article analyzes family violence in Mexico during the COVID-19 lockdown from a geographical perspective, using autocorrelation and regression models to identify sociodemographic and social disadvantage factors associated with its territorial distribution. The results show that family violence was not randomly distributed but rather concentrated in clusters of municipalities with high rates in the north, northwest and central-west regions of the country, and with low rates in the south and southeast. Some variables commonly associated with violence –such as insufficient income, economic dependency, income gaps, and educational lag– showed effects contrary to expectations, suggesting that, in the context of lockdown, poverty and inequality operated differently than in non-extraordinary periods. In contrast, urbanization, demographic feminization, and a higher proportion of female-headed households were associated with an increase in family violence. The findings confirm the multicausal nature of the phenomenon and highlight the importance of considering spatial dependence to understand its territorial distribution.