By Juan Carlos Arean and Terri Strodthoff, Medium, May 5, 2020
Domestic violence tends to increase during periods of disaster, and the COVID-19 pandemic, by compounding emotional and financial stress with physical confinement, is leading to a tragically predictable rise in reports of domestic violence (DV) around the world. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres calls it “a horrifying surge.” There are troubling indicators that child abuse is also on the rise while families are sheltering in place and 40–60% of men in the U.S. who harm their intimate partners were also found to abuse their children, according to a major NIH study. In light of these increased risks, DV advocates are urgently mobilizing to provide additional support to survivors of DV and their children, now confined at home with their abusers, and isolated from friends, family, co-workers, and teachers, who might be able to help.
It has been much more challenging to develop a coordinated response for abusive partners (who are primarily men, but can be of all genders) to prevent them from harming their families during the pandemic. In the U.S., specialized work with abusive partners is done primarily through psycho-educational groups, known as Battering Intervention Programs (BIPs). These programs tend to rely on the power of courts and child welfare agencies to mandate abusive partners to get help, and some are having a hard time effectively engaging abusive partners, now that courts are barely operational, and treatment groups cannot meet in person. As a result, adult and child survivors are at a much greater risk of being harmed.
In addition to logistical barriers created by the pandemic, the systems-based response, with its emphasis on mandatory participation, is not as effective in communities of color that are adversely impacted by law enforcement. According to a recent Blue Shield of California report, the “punitive approach may actually do more harm than good for some victims,” by forcing survivors to choose between their safety and the integrity of their families and communities as men of color are more likely to be arrested, incarcerated and/or deported.
Comments (0)