COVID-19 Lockdown and the Increased Violence Against Women: Understanding Domestic Violence During a Pandemic

Abstract

Globally, during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, reports of domestic abuse have increased. Using scientific and news reports about violence against women during COVID-19 and the changes it implicated in society, this article speculates how different factors contribute to violence against women worldwide, with some focus on Lebanon. Violence types addressed in this study will be domestic violence and intimate partner violence. To understand the link between violence against women and the multidimensional interplay between different factors operating during pandemic lockdown, Heise's ecological model is used. These factors are classified into four groups: structural and environmental, community/societal, relationship, and individual. Violence increase was due to increase in tensions in households, increased perpetrator's risk factors for violence, economic burden, and survivors' limited access to support services available prelockdown. COVID-19's response plan limited the spread of the virus, however, it weakened women's ability to respond to their violent perpetrators.

The impact of COVID‐19 pandemic on Australian domestic and family violence services and their clients

“…Advocates also reported concerns about increased complexities and challenges in assisting victims/survivors amidst COVID‐19 (Foster, 2020 ). By the completion of our survey, there was a growing body of international evidence that there was an increase in DFV during this period (Boserup et al, 2020 ; Bouillon‐Minois et al, 2020 ; Bradbury‐Jones & Isham, 2020 ; Bradley et al, 2020 ; Chandan et al, 2020 ; Froimson et al, 2020 ; Kofman & Garfin, 2020 ; Mazza et al, 2020 , Peterman et al, 2020 ; Usta et al, 2021 ). In the absence of reliable data, most of these studies quote increases in calls to domestic violence helplines of between 15–30% as evidence of an increase in prevalence.…”

“…A meta‐search of international available evidence concluded that “The lockdown exacerbated several factors that affect violence against women”. The drivers of DFV are complex but include increased household tensions, affected gender roles, decreased independence, decreased access to supportive services, decreased stress‐relieving activities and increased economic burden (Usta et al, 2021 :5).…”

“…Our survey results also point to certain sociodemographic cohorts as more vulnerable than others, most notably female clients with school‐age children, clients from CALD communities, female clients with existing DV protection orders and clients with disabilities (see Figure 3 ). Other research has pointed to the vulnerability of particular high‐risk groups (Usta et al, 2021 ).…”

Locked Down with the Perpetrator: The Hidden Impacts of COVID-19 on Domestic and Family Violence in Australia

“…Ultimately, our nationwide survey contributes to the growing evidence globally (e.g., see Peterson, et al 2020; Piquero et al 2020;Polischuk and Fay 2020;True et al 2020;Usta, Murr and El-Jarrah 2021) about the effect of COVID-19 on increasing the complexities of clients' experiences, who were accessing domestic violence and related support services during the onset of the pandemic. Our Australian study reveals an alarming picture with an overwhelming 86.5% (n = 313) of service providers reporting the pandemic had increased the complexity of their clients' needs.…”

Domestic Violence against Women and COVID-19

“…It was found that one of the main reasons that domestic violence increases during a virus outbreak is the breakdown and reformation of laws [19], which includes the implementation of lockdowns. Such periods of forced proximity between partners increases the time spent together, and impedes victims of domestic violence from "escaping" their home (such as going to work or to social events) [46,47]. Additionally, due to the fact that social services and police have different emergencies and priorities during a pandemic, victims of domestic abuse may not be as well supported as they were before the pandemic.…”