No one would have thought that it would take a world pandemic to once again highlight the social inequities that exist in this world, the common trends we see across the globe for better or for worse.
Who would have thought that forcing families to spend more time at home together would drive an increase in spousal abuse when the opposite should be the expectation in a perfect world. In normal times, families didn't spend enough time together at the dinner table and when forced to the extremes, who would have thought that forced family time would worsen conflict in families.
News stories from all around the world highlight the rise in domestic violence cases since COVID-19:
New York
"Domestic Violence resource centres are now more vital than ever"
states an article from ABC news, and that calls to the New York State police were up in the month of March by 15% when compared with last year. Under normal circumstances, domestic abuse victims can leave their home or go to work and seek support outside the home much more easily than when there is a lockdown order.
Mexico
In Mexico, reports of family violence rose 10% in the first four months of the year, compared to the same period last year, according to government data.
More than 1,300 women were murdered in Mexico in the same four months, government statistics show.
Emergency calls reporting attacks on women in Mexico jumped more than 50% in the first four months of the year compared with the same period last year, government data shows.
Canada
As Canada went into lockdown to prevent COVID-19 community spread, service providers began reporting an increase in crisis calls involving domestic violence incidents.
In some parts of Canada, front-line service providers noticed 20 to 30 percent increase in domestic violence reporting.
Vancouver-based Battered Women’s Support Services faced a rapid increase in crisis calls: up by 300% compared with the number of calls before the lockdown.
In a Statistics Canada survey conducted in April, 1 in 10 women reported being extremely concerned about the possibility of facing violence in the home.
Indigenous women’s risk of experiencing violence is three times higher than that of non-Indigenous women
Domestic violence accounts for one in five murders in Canada and kills women at a rate 4.5 times higher than men.
According to a nationwide survey led by the Native Women’s Association of Canada, there has been an increase in intimate partner violence within their communities since early February.
Sakeenah Homes, a Toronto-based crisis line serving immigrant women facing domestic violence, has received three times as many calls in a day as it would have previously received over a week.
A mass shooting in Nova Scotia put a spotlight on domestic violence,
In the World
The United Nations Population Fund predicted there could be 31 million new cases of domestic violence globally if the coronavirus lockdowns continue for six more months, according to Newsweek.
The connection between social isolation, entrapment and domestic violence were apparent long before the pandemic.
Because of covid lockdown measures, domestic violence victims have been stripped of their only respite from abuse, whether it be leaving the house to go to work, take the kids to school, or socialize.
This pandemic is bringing social inequities in the spotlight and highlighting the lack of social measures to address and effectively deal with domestic violence, existing all over the world. Governments all around the are investing more covid funds into non-profits and police training to help deal with the surge, however domestic violence won't disappear when things go back to normal.
Zero Tolerance for Violence in June
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