The Shadow Pandemic

Updated at 9:50 a.m. ET

Call it the “shadow pandemic,” as the United Nations did. As families around the world were forced into lockdown to stop the spread of coronavirus, they were given a simple message: Stay home, stay safe. Yet the ubiquity of domestic violence means that for millions of people, home is anything but safe. As one charity put it, “Abusers always work from home.”

Over the past few months, the coronavirus and the measures needed to contain it have made life almost intolerable for those with controlling or violent partners. Counseling services have been withdrawn or moved online; supportive friends and relatives are physically out of reach. Schools, here in Britain and in much of the world, are still partially closed. Millions of workers are unemployed or on furlough, waiting to find out if their jobs still exist. Families are trapped together, racked by money worries, boredom, loneliness, and drug or alcohol use.

As a result, there has been a spike in calls to domestic-abuse help lines, and charities predict an increase in victims seeking support as restrictions loosen and it becomes easier to leave an abusive home. Like the coronavirus, this is a global problem. Just as China was the first place to report deaths from a new respiratory disease, it was also first place to report an uptick in domestic abuse driven by lockdown measures. In New York—which was, in American terms, affected early by COVID-19—there was a decline in help-line calls once lockdown began, as victims realized they could not leave home, would likely further endanger themselves by seeking help, and might expose themselves to the coronavirus if they stayed in a communal shelter. (In the United States, domestic violence accounts for 20 percent of all violent crime, according to Department of Justice statistics, and there were reported spikes after 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina.)

Here in Britain, the pattern was similar. In April, the British charity Women’s Aid from those affected by this shadow pandemic. “I am a key worker who is around Covid positive patients, so I don’t feel like I can go home and stay with my parents,” one woman said. Another told the charity, “My biggest concern is that my child may be given back to our abuser if I were to become seriously unwell with the virus or not survive.” The British government has acknowledged the problem, announcing that it will at refuges. The money is undoubtedly welcome. Last year, were declined, and the sector has endured years of budget cuts.