Domestic violence during lockdown: are we doing enough?

By Agatha Kempf

For Elizabeth Thompson, it was a familiar event. Her husband was driving her to their son’s swimming competition just outside London, but was going so fast she felt scared and screamed.

“He hit me really hard in the eye, as he used to do boxing when he was younger,” said Thompson, who asked that her real name be changed to protect her identity.

“I had an enormous black eye for the next two weeks.  I was the one who was embarrassed to show this black eye to the world, I was embarrassed to admit that our relationship was not perfect and that instead of love and respect he hits me.”

Thompson, now 55, said her husband stopped the car after hitting her, jumped  out and left. “I had to drive with  the black eye because I did not want to let down our son, who was looking forward to the competition,” she recalled. “Luckily, I had a big fringe and was able to cover the black eye.”

When staying home is dangerous

Since the UK lockdown began on 23rd March, everybody’s life has been put on hold. As the NHS deals with more than a quarter of a million confirmed cases of COVID-19, people are being asked to stay home to stay safe and save lives.

But what if staying home meant you were putting your own life at risk?

Many people in the UK have to live in lockdown with their abusers, and figures relating to domestic violence have climbed since the pandemic began.

The charity Refuge, which runs a national domestic violence helpline, says their traffic has increased by 700% as of April 6th. The number of calls they have received are almost 50 percent higher than prior to the pandemic, to about 400 calls a day. The Men’s Advice Line for supporting male victims of domestic abuse has also increased by 16.6% in the week of March 30th.

In addition, 14 women and two children were killed in “domestic spats” between the 23rd of March and the 12th of April, according to the organisation Counting Dead Women. Its founder, Karen Ingala Smith, has come to the conclusion that the number of women killed by men in the span of those 21 days has been the highest in 11 years. The London Metropolitan Police said that calls relating to domestic abuse have gone up by a third.

“The number of calls to the Helpline began to increase quite quickly after lockdown was imposed,” says Jane Radcliffe, 55, who works for a domestic abuse hotline and asked that her real name not be used. 

“We expected calls to increase and also realised that it would become much harder for women to access support if they were facing abuse. To protect a woman from further abuse, we are not allowed to speak to her if the perpetrator is in the property. So the women have to find a time when they are alone, which can be very hard,” she says.

Is the government doing enough?

In a recent survey, over 72% of people believe that the UK government is not doing enough in order to help victims of domestic abuse during lockdown. The remaining 27% claim they are not sure.

The government has published a list of helplines and mobile applications to ask for help, but only one was specifically put in place over lockdown. The Home Office has said that only “existing sources of advice and support” would be available while it simultaneously started to trend the hashtag #YouAreNotAlone on Twitter, to encourage the public to show support and solidarity to the victims.

The government also stated on its website that the “household isolation instruction as a result of coronavirus does not apply if you need to leave your home to escape domestic abuse”.  But where can victims go?

Radcliffe believes the government could do more to support victims of domestic abuse. “For a start, they need to provide secure funding for refuges. At the moment a woman either pays for her stay through her own means or through Housing Benefit, only if she is eligible,” she said.

Some of the country’s largest chains have made rooms available for domestic abuse victims, after campaign groups Southall Black Sisters and Compassion in Politics wrote to them on their behalf.

But more help is needed – and it should come from the government. An affiliation of charities supporting human rights have signed an open letter to Home Secretary Priti Patel.

“Rather than accepting the increase in domestic abuse as a natural eventuality of the current crisis, we urge you to exercise your powers and allocate specific funding to house the increased number of domestic abuse survivors during this time,” the letter said.

“I would like to see the Government pass the Domestic Abuse Bill that is currently going through parliament, and most of all to make sure that all services, particularly those for BAME women are fully funded,” Radcliffe said.

Grassroots measures

In the UK, Boots and other pharmacies are inviting victims of abuse to use their private consultation rooms as a “safe space” to make phone calls and plan an escape plan. In Spain, victims can go to a pharmacy or supermarket and say the word “Mask 19” to get help. 

But some people say a codeword is fraught with difficulties. “The danger with these sorts of schemes is that if the women are aware of them, it is quite likely that the perpetrators will be too,” says Radcliffe.

The United Nations has warned that if lockdown was extended to six months, an additional 31 million cases of domestic violence could happen worldwide.

That’s an all-too familiar scenario for Elizabeth Thompson, who is now a psychiatric nurse. She says that throughout her 14 years of marriage, her now ex-husband considered it “normal” to fix things through violence. 

“His own father would encourage him to be violent and to ‘win through fighting’, under threat of being beaten up by his father, or receive his disapproval,” she said, adding that she was lucky enough to be able to support herself and finally leave him. 

Her advice to others in a similar situation? “As victims, we should accept that things like that happen, not be embarrassed  for the sake of the facade of a good relationship which is not if you are beaten up,” she says.  

“We need to publicise good outcomes and show the victims that there is always hope and there is always help out there.”

You can sign this open letter to support the Women’s Equality Party battle in asking the British government to change the laws on Domestic Violence Protection Orders and to release funding to support services.

You can also sign this petition asking the British government to use empty Air BnB’s and Hotels and BnB’s to accommodate victims of domestic abuse during lockdown.