Though necessary to slow the spread of the novel Coronavirus (Covid-19), actions such as social-distancing, sheltering in-place, restricted travel, and closures of key community foundations are likely to dramatically increase the risk for family violence around the globe. In fact many countries are already indicating a dramatic increase in reported cases of domestic violence. While no clear precedent for the current crisis exists in academic literature, exploring the impact of natural disasters on family violence reports may provide important insight for family violence victim-serving professionals. Improving collaborations between human welfare and animal welfare agencies, expanding community partnerships, and informing the public of the great importance of reporting any concerns of abuse are all critical at this time.

An increasing risk of family violence during the Covid-19 pandemic: Strengthening community collaborations to save lives

Domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic - Evidence from a systematic review and meta-analysis

Protections for women and girls must be built into response plans

https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/369/bmj.m1712.full.pdf

Violence against women during covid-19 pandemic restrictions.

Against Our Will Men Women And Rape

The novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) and the associated disease it causes, COVID-19, have caused unprecedented social disruption. Due to sweeping stay-at-home orders across the United States and internationally, many victims and survivors of domestic violence (DV), now forced to be isolated with their abusers, run the risk of new or escalating violence. Numerous advocates, organizations, and service centers anticipated this: Upticks in domestic violence were reported in many regions soon after stay-at-home directives were announced. In this commentary, we delineate some of the recent events leading up to the reported spike in DV; review literature on previously documented disaster-related DV surges; and discuss some of the unique challenges, dilemmas, and risks victims and survivors face during this pandemic. We conclude with recommendations to allocate resources to DV front-liners and utilize existing DV guidelines for disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Home is not always a haven: The domestic violence crisis amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Interviews with 30 women in two shires in Victoria, Australia, confirmed that domestic violence increased following the catastrophic Black Saturday bushfires on February 7, 2009. As such research is rare, it addresses a gap in the disaster and interpersonal violence literature. The research that exists internationally indicates that increased violence against women is characteristic of a postdisaster recovery in developing countries. The relative lack of published research from primary data in developed countries instead reflects our resistance to investigating or recognizing increased male violence against women after disasters in developed countries. This article begins with an overview of this literature. The primary research was qualitative, using in-depth semistructured interviews to address the research question of whether violence against women increased in the Australian context. The sample of 30 women was aged from 20s to 60s. Recruitment was through flyers and advertisements, and interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and checked by participants. Analysis was inductive, using modified grounded theory. Seventeen women gave accounts of new or increased violence from male partners that they attribute to the disaster. A key finding is that, not only is there both increased and new domestic violence but formal reporting will not increase in communities unwilling to hear of this hidden disaster. Findings are reported within a framework of three broad explanations. In conclusion, although causation is not claimed, it is important to act on the knowledge that increased domestic violence and disasters are linked.

Investigating the Increase in Domestic Violence Post Disaster: An Australian Case Study.

In countries similar to Australia, relationship violence increases in the wake of disasters. New Zealand police reported a 53 per cent rise in domestic violence after the Canterbury earthquake. In the US, studies documented a four-fold increase following two disasters and an astounding 98 per cent increase in physical victimisation of women after Hurricane Katrina, with authors concluding there was compelling evidence that intimate partner violence increased following large-scale disasters (Schumacher, et al., 2010). Yet there is a research gap on why this happens, and how increased violence may relate to disaster experiences. Women's Health Goulburn North East undertook the first Australian research into this phenomenon, previously overlooked in emergency planning and disaster reconstruction. Interviews with 30 women and 47 workers in Victoria after the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires provided evidence of increased domestic violence, even in the absence of sound quantitative data and in a context that silenced women. Community members, police, case managers, trauma psychologists and family violence workers empathised with traumatised and suffering men - men who may have been heroes in the fires - and encouraged women to wait it out. These responses compromise the principle that women and children always have the right to live free from violence.

The hidden disaster: Domestic violence in the aftermath of natural disaster

In the context of a natural disaster, gender stereotypes play an active role in determining the health and safety of everyone involved. Focusing on men, this paper demonstrates the harmful effects that social expectations of masculinity can have on coping mechanisms and decision-making. Expectations based on gender have broad implications for families and communities and for the ways in which emergency management personnel and procedures operate during crisis response. Research findings convey observations and feelings of 32 men about their experiences of the Black Saturday bushfires in 2009. The findings conclude that constructed ideals of masculinity, and the resulting pressures and expectations, contribute significantly to community suffering, and that acknowledgement of this by the emergency management sector is necessary for improvements in response and recovery.

Men and disaster: Men's experiences of the black Saturday bushfires and the aftermath

Obtaining forensic medical evidence from victim/survivors is often a central part of investigative and case-building efforts in sexual assault prosecution. Developments in the collection, analysis and interpretation of forensic medical evidence have significantly expanded the role and influence of such evidence in the criminal justice system. Despite the expectation that forensic medical evidence will have some role to play in a case progressing through the justice system, it is not clear how this type of evidence results in actual convictions, either via a plea, or finding of guilt at trial.

The role of forensic medical evidence in the prosecution of adult sexual assault

This thesis documents the first Australian research to interview women about their experiences of domestic violence after catastrophic disaster. As such research is rare in developed countries, it addresses a gap in the disaster literature. Interviews with 30 women in two shires in Victoria confirmed that domestic violence increased following the Black Saturday bushfires on 7th February, 2009. The scant research that exists internationally indicates that not only is the notion of ‘women and children first’ a myth, but that women are disproportionally affected by disasters primarily as a result of their poverty relative to men and prescribed gender roles. This research found that women experiencing increased male violence were silenced in preference of supporting suffering men – men who had been heroes in the fires or were traumatised or unemployed as a result of the disaster. The silencing was evident in the lack of statistics on domestic violence in the aftermath of Black Saturday, the neglect of this issue in recovery and reconstruction operations, and the responses to women’s reports of violence against them by legal, community and health professionals. Three broad explanations for increased domestic violence after Black Saturday are identified – drawn from empirical findings from the field and the research literature. Theoretical concepts from two disparate fields – sacrifice and male privilege – help to explain a key finding that women’s right to live free from violence is conditional. Indeed, the aftermath of Black Saturday presents Australians with the opportunity to see how deeply embedded misogyny is and how fragile our attempts to criminalise domestic violence and hold violent men accountable for their actions. The post-disaster period – characterised as it is by men in uniforms on the ground working, saving, rescuing and restoring; powerful imagery about the role of wives and mothers; increased violence by men; mandatory care-loads for women; and the suffering of good men – presents fertile ground for the fortification of male hegemony. Yet, post-disaster change does not have to be regressive, reinstating and reinforcing the traditional inequitable structure – a structure that has high costs for men and women. An emergency management response to disaster that has embedded gender equity at all levels, together with education of communities on the contribution of strict gender roles to suffering in disaster’s aftermath, could exemplify and hasten a more equal society where men’s violence against women is rare.

Debra Parkinson

Papers

Investigating the Increase in Domestic Violence Post Disaster: An Australian Case Study.

The hidden disaster: Domestic violence in the aftermath of natural disaster

Men and disaster: Men's experiences of the black Saturday bushfires and the aftermath

The role of forensic medical evidence in the prosecution of adult sexual assault

Women’s experience of violence in the aftermath of the Black Saturday bushfires