Advocates prepare for another spike in domestic violence cases.
Combination of COVID-19 and the holidays fuels abusive relationships, surveys show
Data shows family violence is intensifying and occurring at a higher rate in the Houston region during the pandemic, and as the holiday season gets underway, advocates fear another spike.
The number of people killed by family violence in Harris County increased 58 percent from March through October compared to the same time frame last year, according to data from the Harris County Sheriff’s Office. There were 12 family violence killings from March through October 2019, compared to 19 this year.
The culmination of economic hardship, overall stress about COVID-19 and the holidays — a time that research shows family and intimate partner violence is likely to become more volatile — may bring deadly consequences for those most at risk, advocates say.
“It’s a time when people are very vulnerable to the dynamics of power and control that abusers try and exercise over victims,” said Emilee Dawn Whitehurst, president and CEO of the Houston Area Women’s Shelter. “This year, the pandemic and economic hardships combined with holiday stress could escalate in ways that are really disastrous in our community.”
Going into the pandemic, the spike in family violence was expected because research on natural disasters such as Hurricane Harvey in 2017 showed a correlation between the two. Nine months into COVID-19, the increase has not slowed. Data from law enforcement agencies and information from advocacy organizations suggests that as the pandemic lingers, the intensity of violence being perpetrated is escalating.
“We’ve heard from providers that their perception is the increase of lethality and the type of
abuse that’s happening is becoming more violent,” said Melanie Susswein, a researcher at the Institute on Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault at the University of Texas at Austin, who recently helped survey hundreds of service providers in the state.
The phenomenon can be seen in the increase in the number of responses that the sheriff’s office has made to calls involving family violence aggravated assault, a felony that involves causing serious bodily injury to a victim, using a deadly weapon or making threats. Calls for service for those types of offenses have increased more than calls for misdemeanor family violence assaults.
The sheriff’s office responded to 204 calls for service for aggravated family violence from July through October, compared to 137 during the same time frame in 2019 — nearly a 49 percent increase. There were 1,897 calls for service for family violence assaults from July through October, compared to 1,450 during those months last year — a 32 percent increase.
The Houston Police Department also reports seeing increases in domestic violence homicides, rapes, aggravated assaults and sex offenses. There were 15,287 responses to incidents in those categories from March through September, according to data compiled by the HPD, compared to 14,534 in 2019.
Figures from law enforcement agencies don’t show the full extent of the violence, said Carvana Cloud, a former Harris County prosecutor and founder of the nonprofit group Empowered Survivor. A report released by the organization, designed to help Black survivors in Acres Homes, shows that many victims didn’t report abuse to police.
More than 60 percent of the people Empowered Survivor surveyed said they did not seek help from law enforcement after a violent incident. That number is a reflection of the impact on how law enforcement engages with Black communities, the report says, and is exacerbated by the fear of fatal police brutality.
Advocacy, intervention
The Houston Area Women’s Center has seen far more clients this year than it did in 2019. Whitehurst said that is in part because the organization has made a concerted effort to reach more people during the COVID-19 crisis.
“We’ve been working hard to make sure people know help is available,” she said. “There have been a multitude of efforts tomake services available throughout the region and to make sure people know about them.”
The center has seen an 80 percent increase in the number of survivors in its emergency shelter program. From March through October, there were 213 total clients who received shelter. During that time in 2019, there were 42.
As of November, there were 61 families being
housed by the center. Of those families, 25 percent to 30 percent have lost their jobs. More than half of those clients haven’t been able to get employment due to the pandemic. And requests for financial assistance to meet survivors’ basic needs have increased 60 percent, according to the center.
More than 60 percent of the survivors Empowered Survivor served were unemployed, which complicated their ability to flee abuse, according to the nonprofit’s report. More than 80 percent said they needed financial assistance more than any other resource.
The Houston Area Women’s Center emergency hotline took 27,270 calls from March through September, an increase of 3,424 calls compared to last year.
In addition to calls to the local hotline, the National Domestic Violence Hotline reports receiving more than 8,900 calls from survivors in Texas during the first half of 2020. Another nearly 1,000 contacts from Texas were made through loveisrespect.org. Of those calls, 17 percent came from Houston. Most of the victims calling in were experiencing emotional or verbal abuse, 70 percent physical abuse and 31 percent financial abuse.
Of the clients Empowered Survivor has served, 23 percent said their abuse happened as a result of the stress and isolation of COVID-19. The remainder said they had experienced violence before the pandemic.
Long-term solutions
Economic challenges are the biggest barrier keeping most victims from escaping violence, advocates say.
“Developing long-term strategies for economic independence is the most important thing we can do,” said Whitehurst. “That independence is tied to the ability to find work, childcare and affordable housing.”
The economic impacts of COVID-19 are an ongoing concern, said Whitehurst, because they directly affect a survivor’s ability to find the financial security necessary to rebuild their lives.
“People just aren’t hiring right now,” said Cloud.
Many survivors face additional challenges to finding jobs and housing due to previous interactions with lawenforcement. Some, for example, may have outstanding charges for defending themselves against their abusers, said Cloud. Others have drug possession charges, given that research shows survivors of abuse are at a higher risk of having substance abuse issues, she said.
With limited economic resources, advocacy groups must focus on helping those most in danger and who have the least options, Whitehurst said.
“Survivors are resilient and resourceful people,” said Whitehurst. “If they have access to the resources they need, they can get out of that violence cycle. Absent those resources, it’s extremely challenging to escape an abusive dynamic.”