Investigating Access to Support Centers for Violence Against Women in Apulia: A Spatial Analysis over Multiple Years

In this study, we address the challenge of modeling the spatial variability in violence against women by proposing a multivariate Poisson regression framework. Using data on access to Local Anti-Violence Centers in the Apulia region (Italy) from 2021 to 2023, we investigate the impact of municipality-level socioeconomic characteristics and local vulnerabilities on both the incidence and reporting of violence. To explicitly account for spatial dependence, we compare four competing spatial models within the Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation framework, assessing their relative fit and inferential implications. Our findings indicate that access to support services decreases with distance, highlighting spatial constraints in reporting and the strategic importance of center location. Furthermore, lower education levels appear to contribute to under-reporting in disadvantaged areas, while higher economic development may be associated with a lower incidence of reported violence. This study emphasizes the critical role of spatial modeling in capturing reporting dynamics and informing policy interventions.