Abused partners become the other victims of virus
Domestic violence is rising across the United States amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and experts warn that there will be a surge in such abuse when stay-at-home orders are lifted.
Stay-at-home orders to prevent the spread of the coronavirus might be dangerous for victims and survivors if they are required to quarantine with their abusers, victim advocates say.
Since the outbreak, reports of violence against women, and particularly domestic violence, have increased in the US and several countries, according to the report “COVID-19 and Violence against Women and Girls” by UN Women.
The report says the increase in violence is tied to the pandemic as “security, health, and money worries create tensions and strains accentuated by the cramped and confined living conditions”.
Though most states are now lifting or easing stay-at-home orders, 90 percent of US residents lived under them for almost two months.
Across the US, some cities have seen an increase in domestic abuse reports and calls to domestic violence hot lines in recent weeks.
More than 5,000 people have called the National Domestic Violence Hotline since mid-March and cited COVID-19 as a trigger.
In some places, the abuse reported was more violent and ended in death.
From March 27 to April 2, as most states ordered the public to stay home, there were at least 19 domestic violence-related murdersuicides, including four attempted ones, compared with an average of 11 murder-suicides a week, according to a HuffPost analysis last month.
Ohio saw a 34 percent increase in domestic violence homicides between February and April, compared with the same period last year, according to the Ohio Domestic Violence Network’s domestic violence fatality data. Columbus police confirmed a 20 percent increase in domestic violence calls in March, according to the organization.
In Dayton, Ohio, a 32-year-old woman died after being shot multiple times last week. Police arrested a 33-year-old man and said the shooting was likely related to domestic violence.
Last month, a man in Pennsylvania upset over losing his job due to the pandemic shot his girlfriend and then killed himself in an attempted murder-suicide.
In King County, Washington state, where Seattle is located, there has been a 20 percent increase in domestic-violence felony cases, including murder charges against a man accused of strangling the mother of his two children just months after he got out of prison. He had attacked her in 2013.
More worrisome situation
“The number and the intensity of the cases have escalated,” David Martin, chief of the domestic-violence unit in the prosecutor’s office in King County, told The Wall Street Journal.
Some cities have seen a decline in domestic violence, including San Francisco, Dayton, Chicago and New York, but advocates said it’s even more worrisome because it’s harder for victims to get help during the pandemic, or they fear moving into a shelter might expose them to the virus.
The National Domestic Violence Hotline group has been receiving an increasing number of calls from survivors who say the pandemic is making their situation worse, Katie Ray-Jones, the group’s chief executive officer, told CNN.
Economic hardship caused by the rises in the unemployment rate also plays a role in the surging domestic violence. So far, more than 36 million US citizens have claimed unemployment in the past two months due to the pandemic.
A survey by the Federal Reserve found that in households making less than $40,000 a year, nearly 40 percent of those who were working in February lost their jobs in March or the beginning of April.
A study by the National Center for Biotechnology Information on the Great Recession reveals that economic hardship, uncertainty and unemployment during recessions increase the likelihood for intimate-partner violence and controlling behaviors among men.