A Global View of Domestic Violence/IPV during COVID

Posted: Katherine Snedaker, LCSW on April 27, 2020

COVID's effect on the increasing rates of DV/IPV is being highlighted in numerous news reports around the world. 

• How can we use this focus on DV/IPV as an opportunity to leverage an appropriate governmental response of assistance?

• How can we ensure DV/IPV is included and funded in the emerging post-COVID plans and also benefits from new technology and new demands for social change to protect vulnerable people?

Within all the press coverage on COVID, there has been a rush of news articles on how lockdowns contribute to domestic violence/interpersonal violence DV/IPV. It is well-documented that DV/IPV increases during times of financial crisis, natural disaster and lockdowns.

However, the scale of people involved in this one singular global crisis, during a worldwide lockdown, is unprecedented and has opened a floodgate. News stories about domestic violence around the world are being reported over and over by international media for a sustained period of time.

Historically, news articles on domestic violence naturally spike in the region where the violence occurs, and the story maybe gains national press if the violent person and/or victim is famous. But with the next days’ news cycle, the topic of domestic violence quickly recedes back into the shadows and never seems to gain any real traction over time.

The current public health warning and outcry began in China in the English press around March 2, and as the virus made its way around the world in the next two months, the news articles on domestic violence followed closely behind.

What is remarkable here is there is no single expert, no one organization, no region, no one event, no crime, no press release, nor celebrity connected with this huge wave of news articles… just a virus traveling around the world entering the homes where violent partners are locked down with their partners waiting in fear. 

In the list below, I have been working to trace origins of the recent explosion of DV and COVID news articles from China to the United States. Please email the links of additional articles to add.

China - (in English as I am not able search articles in Mandarin)

• 3/2 Domestic Violence Cases Surge During COVID-19 Epidemic - Sixth Tone

• 3/7 China's domestic violence epidemic - Axios

Asia

• 3/8 Coronavirus: Five ways virus upheaval is hitting women in Asia - BBC

In early March, DV/IPV NGOs began posting on their websites that domestic violence rates increase in times of financial crisis, natural disasters and lockdowns.

I could not find any news articles linking COVID and Domestic Violence on Google from 3/9-3/12.

First USA articles

• 3/12 Why the Coronavirus Outbreak Could Hit Women Hardest - TIME

• 3/12 Home Is Not A Safe Place For Everyone - Huff Post 

After these two articles, the topic explodes - here is a sampling of articles around the world...

USA/National Coverage

• 3/14 Domestic Abuse Could Spike as the Coronavirus Traps People Indoors - VICE

USA/National Coverage

• 3/19 Being neighborly may help domestic abuse victims who are in danger during the coronavirus pandemic - INSIDER

• 3/21 Domestic Violence and Child Abuse Will Rise During Quarantines. So Will Neglect of At-Risk People, Social Workers Say - ProPublica

Colombia 

• 3/20 El Heraldo https://www.elheraldo.co/mujer-e-igualdad/atrapadas-con-su-maltratador-el-riesgo-de-la-violencia-machista-en-epocas-de 

US/Connecticut 

• 3/22 ‘This could get dangerous’: Experts warn domestic violence may spike amid outbreak - CT Post

US/New York 

• 3/23 Where Can Domestic Violence Victims Turn During Covid-19? - NYTimes

• 3/24 For Abused Women, a Pandemic Lockdown Holds Dangers of Its Own

US/DC 

• 3/27 Domestic violence will increase during coronavirus quarantines and stay-at-home orders, experts warn - Wash Post

UK 

• 3/29 Coronavirus: Domestic abuse victims 'still allowed to leave home - BBC

• 3/31 Coronavirus: I'm in lockdown with my abuser - BBC 

• 3/30 Coronavirus: 'Domestic abuse pandemic likely due to shutdown - BBC 

US/DC 

• 4/1 Measure to control spread of coronavirus are a nightmare for victims of domestic violence - Wash Post

USA/National Coverage

• 4/3 In quarantine with an abuser: surge in domestic violence reports linked to coronavirus - The Guardian

UN

• 4/6 In a Serbian town, survivors of domestic violence are sewing face masks for those in the front line of COVID-19 response - UN Women 

Vancouver

• 4/7 Calls to Vancouver domestic-violence crisis line spike 300% amid COVID-19 pandemic - Global News

USA/National Coverage

• 4/8 COVID-19 and Domestic Abuse: When Home is not the Safest Place - The Conversation

Turkey 

• 4/10 Domestic violence rises in Turkey during COVID-19 pandemic - DW 

Boston

• 4/15 How do you escape an abuser in a pandemic? - The Boston Globe

Balkans

• 4/21 COVID-19 and Domestic Abuse: When Home is not the Safest Place - Balkans In Sight

Jakarta

• 4/21 Women suffer as lockdown worsens Latin Americas domestic hell - Jakarta

US Report on Chicago, Austin, and Chandler, Arizona

• 4/22 Is Domestic Violence Rising During the Coronavirus Shutdown? Here’s What the Data Shows - The Marshall Project

Italy

• 4/23 An ominous silence: Domestic violence charities fear for victims - Al Jazeera

London

• 4/25 London police arrest more than 4,000 people for domestic abuse during coronavirus restrictions - CNN

Canada

• 4/26 ‘Pandemic of violence’: Calls mount for recognition of misogyny in Nova Scotia shooting - MSN

Canada

• 4/27 Minister says COVID-19 is empowering domestic violence abusers as rates rise in parts of Canada - CBC

____________________________________________________________________

 2019 Task Force Members in the News

NEURO REHAB TIMES

• It’s A Really, Really Lonely Place To Be October 11, 2019 - Katherine Snedaker, Ohio DV Network

• How Female Brain Injuries are Going Undetected Sept 23, 2019 - Katherine, Eve Valera

• When Science and Social Impact Get Together October 11, 2019 - Paul and Karen

NYTIMES

• Do Brain Injuries Affect Women Differently? Eve

FORBES

• A Global Public Health Epidemic Going Completely Untreated - Katherine, Eve

THE OFFICIAL VA BLOG

• Women Veterans confront intimate partner violence VA Boston psychologist studies connection between domestic violence and traumatic brain injury - Kate Iverson

OHIO DV NETWORK

• Ohio States News "Study: Brain Injury Common in Domestic Violence" July 1, 2019

• Columbus Dispatch "Brain Injuries from Domestic Violence often Undetected, Study Finds" July 1, 2019

• DomesticShelters.org Undiagnosed Brain Injuries Common in Survivors Dec 2, 2019

BOOKS/AUDIO BOOKS which mention PINK/Katherine - PINK does not recieve any compensation for the sale of these books.

The Beautiful Brain - An Audible Original

• By: Hana Walker-Brown

• Narrated by: Hana Walker-Brown

• Length: 3 hrs and 42 mins

• Original Recording Audiobook

• Release date: 04-04-19

Diagnosis Female - Book

• Hardcover : 232 pages

• By Emily Dwass

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers; 1 edition (October 10, 2019)

• Language: English

• ISBN-10: 1538114461

• ISBN-13: 978-1538114469