Domestic violence during a pandemic and shelter in place
As published on al.com
Safety is the purpose of the “shelter-in-place” mandate – safety for the community, but primarily, safety for front line health care professionals. Shelter-in-place is designed to prevent the system – hospitals, 911 systems, first responders – from being overwhelmed by a tsunami of critically ill patients. Lockdown during a pandemic takes on a very different meaning for victims of domestic violence, quarantined and isolated from people and resources. During this unprecedented crisis, already dangerous domestic violence situations can escalate even more quickly. Feeling a loss of control during uncertain times, abusive partners can become even more volatile.
When substance abuse is involved, confinement for domestic abuse victims is a potential death sentence. The pain of domestic abuse can trigger substance abuse as a coping mechanism for victims, and abusers frequently use drug addiction as a tool for control. A Walker-County man was jailed yesterday, accused of blunt force trauma in the death of his girlfriend. The sheriff remarked the couple had a long history of substance abuse, something the reader might dismiss without understanding the dynamics of addiction and control in many domestic violence cases. A murdered victim isn’t disposal or expendable just because she was high or drunk, and a murderer certainly isn’t excused because he’s an out of control addict.
According to the World Health Organization, natural disasters, wars, and epidemics increase the risk of gendered based violence. During Hurricane Katrina, researchers found a 98% spike in domestic abuse against women, according to Lynn Fairweather, a domestic violence threat assessment consultant. In China, which only passed its first domestic violence law in 2016, the number of domestic calls reported to police tripled in February this year at the height of the coronavirus epidemic, according to Axios.
Here in Birmingham at One Place, a “trauma informed” multidisciplinary approach helps survivors make thoughtful decisions and gain access to life saving information, all in one building. Each week, a team, including a prosecutor, police officer, nurse, and counselor coordinate and facilitate the process of keeping domestic violence victims safe. Over the past three years, Allison Dearing, the director of One Place, has seen an increase in charges as advocates follow up with individuals, explain a confusing and often intimidating legal system, and provide practical resources and emotional support. Dearing says the simple act of listening to a victim has a profound impact. Helping a victim understand she’s not alone is a first step in breaking away from a life-threatening relationship.
Today, during this current crisis, Dearing is charged with providing these same services, purposefully located physically in one safe space, virtually. She’s been coordinating with partners at the YWCA, Crisis Center, courts, law enforcement, and others to gather new protocols for providing information and services and communicating these through proper channels to the right people and organizations.
Catherine Alexander-Wright, director of domestic violence services at the YWCA, is also working and operating with a largely remote staff while still serving clients in shelters in Jefferson and St. Clair counties and making referrals to other shelters when needed. Advocates are helping those who call with counseling, safety planning, and protective orders. Alexander-Wright says victims seeking to file a Protection from Abuse or who have questions about orders already in place can reach out to the YWCA Advocacy and Family Law Services still operating with limited services. For survivors in Jefferson County with existing protection from abuse orders, by order of Presiding Judge French entered on March 25th, any prior orders of protection issued prior to March 17, 2020, with a hearing scheduled during the temporary suspension are to remain in full force and effect until the matter is rescheduled and heard by the Court.
One Place directs all appropriate calls to the YWCA’s hotline, but fields calls for the spectrum of needs a survivor faces. Dearing says her phone has been quieter than usual during the shelter-in-place. That doesn’t mean this past week she hasn’t received calls from women in the most dangerous situations, whether it’s someone who’s escaped and found a job but worried she might lose it or a woman who’s been choked. A common tactic for abusers is strangulation (a class B felony in Alabama). A National Institute of Justice Study found men who strangle women are 10 times more likely to murder them. At One Place, a Cortexflo digital camera documents the internal bruising and effects of strangulation, even the handprints of the choker.
Dearing says women most often call when the abuser is at work or they’re away from the house in a public space where it’s safer to make that call for help. She does expect an uptick in calls when freedoms are reinstated. According to a recent WHNT 19 news report, Crisis Services of North Alabama has seen an increase in calls. Calls to the YWCA’s hotline doubled this past weekend.
During this current shelter-in-place order, isolation, a powerful tool abusers wield against women to begin with, can be manipulated to exert even more control over a victim who’s a passive hostage in her own home. Violent partners may withhold information, provide misleading information, convince victims police and paramedics won’t respond to their calls, and tell them they’re infected with the virus and can’t leave. “Gaslighting” is always easier with a captive audience.
Unable to communicate with family, friends, and counselors, domestic violence victims no longer have strategies for coping with the abuse. Dearing says creating a “code word” for the family or a signal to the neighbor, such as leaving the porch lights on as a sign to call the police, is part of creating a safety plan at home. She encourages women to carry their cell phone with them at all times.
For women seeking help in rural Alabama, many areas lack internet and wifi, leaving women without access to technology and unable to use the chat and texting features on the National Domestic Violence Hotline webpage as an option for escaping. Healthcare facilities are becoming overwhelmed with coronavirus patients and many women may not escape to family homes to keep elderly relatives free from potential exposure to the virus. A looming financial recession puts funding for domestic violence services at risk and could mean financial insecurity and dependence for women seeking a way out.
Those in the business of helping vulnerable individuals and communities and saving lives face daunting obstacles to fulfill their mission on a good day. Now, during a pandemic and quarantine, the challenges of well-meaning systems are highlighted even more as first responders scramble to keep meeting the needs of domestic violence victims. During this national emergency, the families damaged and the lives lost will not only be those infected with this terrible virus, but intimate partners dealing with the toxic admixture of financial stress, alcohol, drugs, and imposed isolation in the most dangerous place they know -- home.
Maya Angelou writes in her poem, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” “But a caged bird stands on a grave of dreams/his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream/his wings are clipped and his feet are tied/so he opens his throat to sing.”
During these troubled times, let’s not forget the women trapped at home longing for freedom, longing for safety, longing to stay alive.