Covid‐19 lockdowns, intimate partner violence and coercive control

Datos Bibliográficos

ID11228314
AutoresCiara Smyth (0000-0003-1991-5780, Social Policy Research Centre (SPRC UNSW Sydney Sydney NSW Australia, autor de correspondencia), Patricia Cullen (0000-0003-4652-0936, School of Population Health UNSW Sydney UNSW Sydney Sydney NSW Australia), Jan Breckenridge (0000-0002-6379-0607, School of Social Sciences UNSW Sydney Sydney NSW Australia), Natasha Cortis (0000-0003-2035-6146, Social Policy Research Centre (SPRC UNSW Sydney Sydney NSW Australia), Kylie Valentine (0000-0003-4785-484X, Social Policy Research Centre (SPRC UNSW Sydney Sydney NSW Australia)
Año2021
Volumen56
Número3
Páginas359-373
Fecha de publicación2021-09-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAustralian Journal of Social Issues (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0157-6321 • E-ISSN: 1839-4655
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/ajs4.162
PMID34188336
OpenAlexW3159687330
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas18
Referencias citadas30

2020 was a year like no other, with the COVID‐19 virus upending life as we know it. When governments around the world imposed lockdown measures to curb the spread of COVID‐19, advocates in the domestic and family violence (DFV) sector recognised that these measures were likely to result in increases in violence against women, particularly intimate partner violence (IPV). IPV can take many forms, including physical, emotional, psychological, financial, coercive controlling behaviours, surveillance and isolation tactics. Lockdown conditions provide fertile ground for the exercise of coercive control by encouraging people to stay at home, limiting social interactions to household members, reducing mobility and enabling perpetrators to closely monitor their partner's movements. However, media reports and awareness of IPV are generally dominated by a focus on physical violence and lethality, which are easily defined and measured. By contrast, coercive control as a concept is difficult to operationalise, measure and action in law, policy and frontline interventions. This paper discusses the challenges inherent in measuring coercive control and engages with current debates around the criminalisation of coercive control in NSW. Such reflection is timely as the conditions of COVID‐19 lockdowns are likely to lead to an increase in coercive controlling behaviours

Control (management · Criminology · Domestic violence · Economics · Medical emergency · Poison control · Political science · Psychiatry · Psychological intervention · Suicide prevention · Homicide, Infanticide, and Child Abuse · Intimate Partner and Family Violence · Medicine · Psychology · Sex work and related issues