Citation

Hall BJ, Tucker JD. Asian J. Psychiatry 2020; 53: e102179.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.ajp.2020.102179

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Approximately three billion people around the world are sheltering in place. Although this is an essential component of the COVID-19 public health emergency response, it will increase risk for a COVID-19-domestic violence syndemic. Increases in domestic violence following lockdowns have already been observed in dozens of countries. During the first eight days of lockdown in South Africa, 87,000 domestic violence calls were reported to the police (Digital, 2020). A non-governmental organization in Hubei Province, the COVID-19 epicenter in China, noted that domestic violence calls tripled in February 2020 compared to the same month in 2019 (Feng, 2020), which will further challenge health systems (Fang et al., 2019; Gan et al., 2020).

Several key syndemic risk pathways link the global COVID-19 pandemic and domestic violence (Fig. 1). First, the stay home movement and related public health emergency response measures decrease opportunities for survivors to report violence and leave abusers. Survivors are caught with their abusers and may have additional competing demands from home schooling and other family obligations (Cluver et al., 2020). Second, as health systems and governments focus attention on COVID-19 responses, the often patchwork system of existing hotlines, shelter, and other resources to address domestic violence will be further compromised. Third, COVID-19 increases the burden of anxiety and depression, delaying people from seeking services in a timely fashion. Fourth, related loss of jobs and wages coupled with a lack of control are likely to increase violence (Waters et al., 2004). Finally, the lockdown environment decreases available social support and increases social isolation ...

Language: en