Calls to the UK’s largest domestic abuse helpline are rising “week on week” as new figures reveal that almost 50 suspected killings may have occurred during the first lockdown.
The charity Refuge, which runs the National Domestic Abuse helpline, said it was “very concerned” by the continuing upward trend in demand for its services, with England a little over a week into its second lockdown.
Separate data from Counting Dead Women, a project that records the killing of women by men in the UK, identified 35 murders, with another 12 strongly suspected cases between 23 March and the start of July, when Covid restrictions were largely lifted.
Several United Nations’ reports indicate that since the outbreak of the pandemic, empirical research suggests that all types of violence against women and girls, particularly domestic violence, has intensified. As the United Nations warns: “This is the Shadow Pandemic growing amidst the Covid-19 crisis and we need a global collective effort to stop it. As Covid-19 cases continue to strain health services, essential services, such as domestic violence shelters and helplines, have reached capacity. More needs to be done to prioritize addressing violence against women in Covid-19 response and recovery efforts.”
This increase in domestic violence is concerning as even before Covid-19 the issue of domestic violence was at a high level and far from being resolved. These concerning facts are as follows:
“1 in 3 women and girls experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime, most frequently by an intimate partner;
Worldwide, almost 750 million women and girls alive today were married before their 18th birthday; while 200 million women and girls have undergone female genital mutilation;
1 in 2 women killed worldwide were killed by their partners or family in 2012; while only 1 out of 20 men were killed under similar circumstances;
