Sexual violence and Covid-19

All silent on the home front

Bibliographic Data

ID15748830
AuthorsClare Gunby (0000-0001-8428-6621, University of Birmingham, corresponding author), Louise Isham (0000-0002-3660-1073, University of Birmingham), Sarah Damery (0000-0003-3681-8608, University of Birmingham), Julie Taylor (0000-0002-7259-0906, Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust), Caroline Bradbury-Jones (0000-0002-5237-6777, University of Birmingham)
Year2020
Volume4
Issue3
Pages421-429
Publication date2020-09-16
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Gender-Based Violence (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2398-6808 • E-ISSN: 2398-6816
PublisherPolicy Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1332/239868020x15984631696329
OpenAlexW3096893379
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited12

In this article, we reflect on the framing of violence against women in mainstream media in the UK, and some policy documents and guidance, in the first four weeks of the COVID-19 induced lockdown. In so doing, we consider the implications associated with the frequent failure to acknowledge sexual violence as a unique, and discrete, element of violence against women. Amid a context of overshadowing and absence, we also raise for debate (and recognition) the likely challenges associated with moving specialist voluntary sector sexual violence organisations into workers’ homes, to enable service provision to continue. In developing our arguments, we draw on conversations with voluntary sector sexual violence practitioners in England and existing literature that highlights the importance of the boundary between home and the job, when working with the ‘taint’ of sexual offences. Such a boundary rapidly recedes when sexual violence services, and their functions, are moved into workers’ living spaces. We set out some of the likely impacts of this changed work context and argue that projections for the resources required to manage COVID-19 in the longer term, must not forget about the needs of frontline voluntary sector workers

Context (archaeology · Criminology · Framing (construction · Mainstream · Political science · Public relations · Sexual violence · Sociology · Voluntary sector · Engineering · Gender, Security, and Conflict · History · Intimate Partner and Family Violence · Law · Psychology · Sexual Assault and Victimization Studies