Domestic Violence and Abuse as a Shadow Pandemic

Domestic Violence and Abuse as a Shadow Pandemic investigates, analyses and presents statistics to assess the claim by UN WOMEN that domestic violence constituted a 'shadow' pandemic to the COVID-19 pandemic. The drivers of violence, mitigation strategies, and State and agency responses are discussed with data from more than 80 countries, covering North and South America, the Caribbean, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Australasia. Contributors to the book include judges and magistrates who preside in the Family Courts as well as academics and stakeholders from international agencies who publish in the field of domestic violence and who produce policy reports to mitigate and eradicate domestic abuse and gender-based violence. Their coverage includes the examination of the following themes: (1) The disproportionate impact of domestic abuse and violence on marginalised communities including indigenous groups, forced migrants and undocumented workers, persons of colour, rural residents, those with physical or mental disabilities and the sexually differentiated. (2) The degree of inclusiveness and adequacy of local anti-domestic violence legislation for protecting victims and deterring offenders. (3) The role of the UN system, its international conventions and monitoring reports on the text of national domestic violence Statutes and on State services for victims, in each country reviewed. (4) Access to justice and legal relief for adult and child victims of domestic abuse and violence. (5) The crafting of suitable interventions and policies to eliminate domestic violence and abuse. (6) Benefits of the pandemic that support victims of violence. Written in non-technical language, and international and interdisciplinary in scope, this book will appeal to a wide ranging readership, including scholars and students of Criminology, Sociology, Social Work, Law, Psychology, and International Politics, as well as practitioners working in the field of domestic violence and policymakers.

Florence Seemungal is a Trinidadian multi-disciplinary researcher and a Research Associate of the Centre for Criminology, University of Oxford, and an Adjunct Staff, the University of the West Indies Open Campus since 2011 where she delivers an array of courses psychology courses for undergraduates enrolled in the BSc Youth Development Work, BSc Social Work and BSc Psychology degree programs. She is a founder member of the Oxford-Tulane Developmental Justice Network established in 2017 now the Oxford-Maudsley Developmental Justice Consortium. She is a member of the Law and Society Association (USA) and publishes in the field of capital punishment with analyse on domestic homicides and the implementation of the death penalty in Trinidad and Tobago and on death penalty reform in the Caribbean.

Introduction: Domestic abuse and domestic violdence - A shadow COVID-19 pandemic? PART I 1. Goniàxot'e: Stories of fear, silence, and suffering Pertice Moffitt, Rosa Mantla, Rebecca Nash, and Onyx Walker 2. Home was never safe: Intimate partner violence and the pandemic in the Arab region Lina AbiRafeh and Rebecca O'Keeffe 3. Intimate partner relationships before and during the COVID-19 pandemic Anant Kumar, Pooja, and Sonali Layek 4. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on teen relationship abuse: Adolescent development as vulnerability and resource Sarah Bekaert 5. IPV-related information seeking in Italy: Lessons from online surveys Ebru Sanlitürk, Selin Köksal, Luca Maria Pesando, and Valentina Rotondi PART II 6. A pandemic effect or endemic problem? Domestic violence in the Eastern Caribbean and Barbados Florence V. Seemungal 7. Lessons from Línea 137 in Buenos Aires Santiago M. Perez-Vincent and Enrique Carreras 8. ONLINE search insights to map domestic abuse risk: London under lockdown Celia Davies, Andrew Pel, and Chris Simmonds 9. Domestic violence and the pandemic in Guyana Audrey Benn 10. An overview of domestic violence (DV) in South Africa Prof. C Bezuidenhout and Prof. M Moen 11. New Zealand's family violence policy and practice during COVID-19 lockdown: 'If that bubble is unsafe you leave' Penny Ehrhardt 12. The COVID-19 pandemic impacts on domestic violence in Malaysia Mariny Abdul Ghani, PH.D. 13. India's shadow pandemic: Domestic violence during COVID-19 Mitali Nikore, Sonakshi Chaudhry, Manvika Gupta, Jyothi Menon, and Geetika Malhotra PART III 14. Nigerian workers and the shadow pandemic in Lebanon Marissa Quie 15. The duty to protect survivors of gender-based violence in the age of COVID-19: A Miami-Dade County case study Caroline Bettinger-Lopez, R. Denisse Córdova Montes, and Max Zoberman 16. Violence against women and DV in the region of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) during the COVID-19 pandemic: Contextual analysis, lessons learned, and promising practices Graziella Pavone 17. Violence against women in Pakistan Dr. Mirza Altamish Muhammad Baig, Dr. Sajjad Ali, Dr. Numra Altaf Tunio, and Dr. Naila Baig PART IV 18. México: Towards a life free of violence Judge Norma Sandra Barrones Castillo 19. Addressing domestic abuse before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic: A perspective from within the criminal justice system of England and Wales Her Honour Judge Emma Nott 20. Fighting domestic violence in France and Russia: A comparative overview Charlotte Gunka and Ekaterina Tyagay 21. Addressing the impact of COVID-19 on gender-based violence in Uganda Magistrate Caroline Kabugho Byakutaga Conclusion Afterword Index