‘I will rather be killed by corona than by him…’: Experiences of abused women seeking shelter during South Africa’s COVID-19 lockdown

Abstract

Background In April 2020, the United Nations predicted that the COVID-19 pandemic will have a ‘calamitous’ impact on the lives of women. This was based on concerns about an upsurge in Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) arising from increased opportunities for relational conflict due to forced co-existence and therefore additional time spent with abusive partners. Aim Research has shown an increase in IPV during times of crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic has generated unprecedented circumstances and stress, and opportunities to do research to understand whether the COVID-19 pandemic impacted on IPV experiences were limited. Thus, the present study aimed to understand women’s experiences of being in and leaving an abusive relationship during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods Individual, telephonic interviews were conducted with 16 women living in domestic violence shelters within three Provinces during South Africa’s lockdown period. Results Findings reveal that the public health measures implemented by the South African Government to curb the spread of the virus, may have placed vulnerable groups at increased risk of violence. Specifically, lockdown likely magnified the risk for escalation of abuse in families already experiencing IPV prior to COVID-19. The study highlights an IPV and COVID-19 relationship, showing that the gender insensitive pandemic control measures, such as stay at home orders and travel restrictions, likely placed women at risk of increased abuse. Given the recurrency of COVID-19 epidemic waves, attention must be given to gender disparities or many South African women may experience worse outcomes. Conclusion This study reminds us that being ordered to stay at home is not always the safest option for women and thus, in a country with one of the highest levels of GBV, it becomes imperative to ensure that IPV safeguards are integrated into COVID-19 measures. It also becomes evident that COVID-19 requires enhanced ways of responding by paying attention to gender disparities.

Stay-at-Home: The Impact of the COVID-19 Lockdown on Household Functioning and ART Adherence for People Living with HIV in Three Sub-districts of Cape Town, South Africa

“…Reductions in IPV were hoped for when the alcohol sales ban in South Africa was implemented during the lockdown [ 12 ]: one study indicated that deaths from “unnatural causes” decreased dramatically during the lockdown [ 73 ] while another links a reduction in hospital admissions for assault and sexual assault directly to the alcohol ban [ 56 ]. Conversely, qualitative research has presented the ban as a stressor and therefore a cause of IPV [ 74 ], warranting further research on the link between the alcohol ban and IPV. Interestingly, participants in this study who reported violence both at baseline and at follow-up had specified at baseline that the perpetrator was their current partner or household member living in the household: reductions in violence could therefore be due to reduced contact with perpetrators who live outside the household.…”

The Trinidad and Tobago Covid-19 Domestic Violence Victimization and Perpetration Study

“…The aforementioned contributory factors mirror the work of Capaldi et al ( 2012 ) who found that financial stress has been linked to perpetration of partner abuse and Sharma & Borah ( 2020 ) who pointed out that layoffs and loss of income are driving up the incidence of DV during the Covid-19 pandemic. Similarly, there is support for the aforementioned findings from Wallace et al ( 2019 ) on male fear of reporting DV victimization, Campbell ( 2020 ) on work as a safe space, and Dekel and Abrahams ( 2021 ) on mental health and DV as factors that contribute to elevated levels of DV victimization.…”

“…For example, the majority of the participants in the qualitative component of the study indicated that for them, isolation/Covid-19 restriction was the major contributing factor for increased DV victimization and perpetration. This position is hardly surprising as the literature espouse similar sentiments (See Bilyeau, 2020 ; Dekel & Abrahams, 2021 for support).…”

Ethical reporting of research on violence against women and children during COVID-19: Analysis of 75 studies and recommendations for future guidelines

“…Examples of best practice reporting by domain and item are provided using excerpts from the highest scoring papers in Table A4. [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27] [Table 2 here]…”