Australia sees surge in domestic violence during pandemic

Published in the Australian Journal of Social Issues, the study said 62 per cent of domestic and family violence (DFV) sector workers reported an increase in demand during the pandemic.

In addition, 67 per cent of workers reported abuse victims seeking help for the first time during the pandemic.

Lead author of the study, professor of education and social justice at QUT Kerry Carrington said the findings were not completely surprising.

"We did expect that the lockdown conditions would create a perfect storm for anyone who is in a coercive controlling relationship, there was just no space," Carrington told on Friday.

A government study from Australian Institute of Criminology that interviewed 15,000 women across Australia in May of 2020 found that 11.6 per cent of respondents had been the victim of some kind of domestic abuse.

Two-thirds of the respondents reported that the abuse had either started or escalated since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Carrington told, that there are a multitude of factors behind the coinciding of this uptick with the pandemic and ensuing lockdowns.

"So the pandemic itself created the perfect storm for insecurity, financial loss, loss of jobs and of course intense conflict within families, kids home, home schooling, inability to escape."

"So, the whole thing was that they were locked down with the perpetrator."

Carrington said the most shocking part of their findings was the ways that perpetrators of domestic violence were weaponising the pandemic and other health restrictions.

"Covid actually gave perpetrators another weapon. It gave them a weapon to actually further enhance the control of their victims."

An anonymous respondent who worked as a domestic family violence counsellor in Tasmania said victims' support networks were often severely reduced during times of lockdown.

"In situations where victims live with perpetrators, perpetrators have monitored victims more closely, including victim's communication with others," the respondent said.

The study reported that the vast majority, 86 percent of workers in the DFV sector reported an increase in complexity of abuse victim's needs during the pandemic.

Carrington said these responses served as a stark reminder that DFV services need greater support during times of crisis, and the most important thing going forward is for more empathy for women in these situations and greater funding for organisations in the DFV sector.