The Effects of Confinement on Domestic Violence

The pandemic has brought with it a health crisis that has forced serious measures to be taken to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

At the beginning of the crisis, measures of confinement and restriction of mobility were applied, which meant a reduction significant number of COVID-19 cases, but they had as a collateral effect the increase of another serious problem: violence domestic.

Throughout the last year, several studies have addressed the effects of confinement on domestic violence, trying to see what the links have been between the anti-covid measures and the appearance of this type of aggression. Let's see it next.

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What do we know about the effects of confinement on domestic violence?

On March 11, 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic was declared. In a matter of days, in some cases hours, many governments around the world implemented measures to prevent the spread of the disease, restrictive measures including confinement, minimizing all social contact with outsiders home and travel ban to prevent the virus from spreading further and worsening the already dire situation sanitary.

These measures were effective in reducing the effects of the pandemic, but brought with them problems such as stress and anxiety because the average citizen was in a situation of high emotional tension. Bearing this in mind, if psychologically not very vulnerable people began to manifest mental problems, we can imagine what difficult it turned out to be for people who were already part of a risk group, such as victims of violence domestic.

While all the stay-at-home measures made sense from a health point of view, it is clear that it was the worst situation that people who received domestic violence could experience, either at the hands of their partner or in the form of abuse childish. Confinement forced people to stay in the place where they received this violence, without having access to outsiders who could detect the signs of abuse and violence and make it more difficult for them to receive assistance from associations specialized.

That violence against women has increased is a fact. Several global organizations, including WHO, UN Women and UNICEF, warned about the need to pay special attention to women and children locked up with their abusers and to seek measures that would serve to prevent the spread of the virus but that would not put the most vulnerable groups at risk. Although confinement was necessary, it was clear that it was going to become a trap for victims of domestic violence. Decades of progress against this type of violence have been shattered.

Given this situation, hundreds of researchers around the world conducted studies to address the relationships between the COVID-19 crisis, confinement and increased violence domestic. The objective was not only to see the specific effects behind domestic violence attributable to the health crisis, but also to seek the answer to create policies that prevent the exposure of potential victims to this type of violence, either by better detecting cases in a confinement situation or by preventing them from staying at home with their abuser.

There are several effects of confinement on domestic violence, both directly and indirectly, increasing it. Confinement measures, along with the economic impact of the pandemic, increased the factors that have been associated with this type of violence. Among them we can highlight the increase in unemployment in the male population, stress due to having need to take care of children longer, increased financial insecurity and the application of maladaptive coping strategies finding himself in a situation that no one expected that he would have to live.

• You may be interested in: "The 11 types of violence (and the different types of aggression)"

Recent research

Recently, Piquero's group and colleagues have carried out a systematic review in which they have shared the research that has addressed the links between domestic violence and confinement, trying to find out what are the specific effects that confinement has had on domestic violence at the world. His work compares the results obtained from all parts of the world, which puts into perspective how the phenomenon has occurred in a multicultural and multistate way.

From this systematic review it is extracted that the global economic impact of COVID-19 has implied an increase in several factors that have traditionally been associated with domestic violence, which evidences and explains the increase in this type of aggression. The health crisis has increased unemployment, adding stressors to the home. Furthermore, as children stop going to school, their parents have had to take a more active role in their formal education in addition to having to endure more time at home.

There have been many cases of people who have not lost their jobs, but who have had to telecommute at home with the rest of the family, something that can cause tension. If employment was not stable and, therefore, there was the possibility of losing it throughout the pandemic (p. e.g. restoration) tension increased due to uncertainty and financial instability which has been the background of the entire health crisis.

Another explanation behind the increase in domestic violence due to confinement is found in that there has been more social isolation among women as they cannot establish contact outside their nucleus domestic. Added to this, there have been more opportunities and attempts by abusers to exercise their power and coercive control over their partners and there have also been more cases of marital conflict. Nor can we ignore the fact that, because of emotional distress, many men have fallen into substance abuse.

In addition to all these factors mentioned here, we cannot ignore the main fear of a health crisis: getting sick. Many people were truly terrified of the possibility of contracting COVID-19, since the simple possibility of Getting sick could mean losing your job and earning money, having to receive treatment for life, or die. All of this has worsened overall mental health, causing tension at home and increasing domestic assaults.

Disasters and victimization of women

But really all this is not new. There was already a suspicion even before the pandemic that, in the event of a health crisis, the physical and mental health of women would worsen as a result of an increase in cases of domestic violence due to the increase in the factors behind the same. It was already known that cases of domestic violence were more serious and common after natural disasters and epidemics occurred., since they involve a situation of great tension.

Despite the fact that women have been gaining rights over the last decades and there has been a greater awareness to avoid As cases of domestic violence occur, the pandemic situation we still find ourselves in has thrown years of advances. Being a completely new situation for most of society, in which psychological distress has increased, it is not strange (but not justifiable) that there have been aggressions in the home, either specific or systematic.

This situation should serve governments, associations and any organization that has the capacity to protect victims of domestic violence to develop plans so that, in the event that we have a health crisis again in the near future, we can Apply measures that prevent the spread of the disease but without catching women victims of this type of aggression with their abusers.