The violence against women risk index: Design and application of a synthetic measure for subnational surveillance in Mexico

The Violence Against Women Risk Index demonstrates that municipal-level gender-based violence can be measured reliably from administrative data using transparent, statistically stable methods. By exposing geographic inequalities and reporting heterogeneity in marginalized jurisdictions, the index provides public health systems with actionable surveillance infrastructure for evidence-based prevention planning, equitable resource allocation, and accountability. The framework is transferable to other decentralized or federated systems seeking subnational violence surveillance without requiring survey infrastructure or additional data collection costs.