Domestic Violence and COVID Brief

Disasters are unexpected events that disrupt “normal” conditions and exceed the capacity of an affected community to respond. Disasters can include hurricanes, high-magnitude earthquakes, forest fires, tornados, and, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic. Although they are frequently referred to as natural disasters, disasters are not natural. They are actually the result of how communities are structured and how resources are allocated. Disasters cost the U.S. billions in response and recovery, but there are other ways that disasters impact communities that cannot be so easily repaired.²

Although decades of research have demonstrated that domestic violence increases with disasters, our disaster response systems still do not have access to enough adaptive capacity to respond. Adaptive capacity refers to practical tools – like flexible funding or excess shelter capacity – systems need to cope with the changes and uncertainties that happen during disasters. Adaptive capacity is a key part of building system resilience. Without adaptive capacity, domestic violence service providers may not be able to meet the need for support and shelter in the wake of crises. It is clear that when a disaster occurs, the needs of domestic violence victims and survivors far exceed the community’s capacity to respond.²

Put simply, the degree of system preparedness to counter the increased risk of domestic violence during disasters is inadequate. An increased sense of helplessness and tension during disasters can increase negative behavior in abuses, placing the people around them in danger with limited resources for sanctuary as a result of the physical impacts of the disaster.³ This problem was particularly severe during the COVID-19 pandemic when shelter-in-place orders and other public health control measures like physical distancing required survivors to quarantine with their abusers without means of escape.  Additionally, these measures significantly reduced the availability of shelter space with social distancing protocols cutting shelter capacity to half of what it was prior to the pandemic.⁴

As disasters become more frequent and severe, it is increasingly important to consider the role of prevention, policy-making, and advocacy in counteracting the impacts of domestic violence during disasters. While disasters cannot always be prevented, we can focus on building the resilience of multiple social services systems to mitigate the increased risk of violence post-disaster. For example, increasing capacity among policymakers, public health leaders, emergency managers, and other government officials to understand the risk factors associated with disasters that may increase violence and how disaster response measures can exacerbate risk to inform policy and improve training to build system resiliency during disasters and in the inter-disaster period.