How Can We Increase Neighbors' Intention to Report Intimate Partner Violence Against Women During the Pandemic?

Abstract

During the pandemic, neighbors can be potential allies to prevent intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW). Based on the reasoned action approach, we identified the predictors and the most relevant beliefs behind neighbors' intention to report to authorities that a woman is being victimized by IPVAW. A total of 352 Spanish participants completed a questionnaire. The regression analysis showed that perceived control and subjective norm were the best predictors of the intention (33% explained variance). Social media campaigns should target perceived inhibitors such as citizens' guilt for reporting ambiguous cases and close referents (friends and family) as prescribers of the helping behavior.

Stay Home, Stay Safe? The Impact of the COVID-19 Restrictions on the Prevalence, Nature, and Type of Reporter of Domestic Violence in the Netherlands

“…The SARIMAX models did provide evidence of a divergent trend in non-professional reporters after the COVID-19 restrictions were introduced. In line with expectations expressed in previous studies (Ertan et al, 2020;Nardi-Rodríguez & Paredes-López, 2022;Sharma & Borah, 2020), neighbors became more important as reporters during the first lockdown. Perhaps the COVID-19 restrictions have led to more bystanders having heard and/or seen domestic violence as people spend more time at home, contributing to greater social control.…”

“…During the first lockdown, professionals nevertheless remained the most important reporters of domestic violence, partly because these professionals are obliged to report their suspicions to the official domestic violence agency. Still, we found a significant shift from professional to non-professional reporters during the first lockdown, indicating that the opportunities for both professional and non-professional reporters may have changed due to the COVID-19 restrictions (Nardi-Rodríguez & Paredes-López, 2022 ). By looking at the professional reporters in more detail, we found a decrease in the proportion of professional reports coming from education and day-care, and (para)medical professions.…”

Bystanders of intimate partner violence against women and their willingness to intervene: An analysis of secondary data in Spain (2005–2020)

“…In fact, another point in need of further analysis is the possible “pandemic effect” brought about by Covid-19 and the restrictive measures taken to control this epidemic [ 82 ]. This effect can already be noted in data related to reported cases [ 83 ], but further analysis is required on its effect on the bystander response [ 37 ]. Additionally, a future meta-analysis, pooling data from multiple studies (publicly available data sets, but also peer-reviewed articles and grey literature), could be done to provide more precise data on the volume of bystanders in cases of IPVAW in Spain.…”

“…The difference in the data could suggest that while an analysis of the response among the general population of Spain to surveys on the perception of IPVAW [ 43 , 49 ] and the response among victims of IPVAW in the macro-surveys [ 40 – 42 ] tends to identify those within the victim’s inner circle as active bystanders who would call the police if they were to become aware of this type of violence, the actual records indicate a much less optimistic reality where the levels of involvement among those in the victim’s inner circle are low or very low and the intended behavioral response does not actually occur. This could be due to either the self-reporting bias of the social desirability effect for both bystanders and victims [ 12 ], a widely documented effect with respect to this type of violence [ 79 , 80 ], or to the existence of a significant distance between intended and actual behavior, as noted by Azjen and Fishbein’s Theory of Planned Action [ 81 ], which has also been identified in the literature related to the behavior of bystanders [ 29 , 37 ]. In our view, highlighting the significant gap between what IPVAW bystanders say they will do and what they actually do (as shown by the data on complaints) and pointing out the need to further delve into the factors that explain theses contradictions are the most relevant result of this paper.…”

“…In different countries, conducting research on help-seeking behavior and bystander intervention in cases of VAW is a common practice and has been carried out for various forms of VAW such as dating violence, sexual assault, or sexual violence [ 10 , 14 , 15 , 31 – 33 ], although reliable data on their effectiveness is not available for all cases [ 34 , 35 ]. Addressing these issues is much less common in Spain [ 11 , 36 ], with most research being circumscribed to IPVAW [ 11 , 12 , 36 , 37 ].…”