Reporting to police by intimate partner violence victim-survivors during the COVID-19 pandemic
| Author | Anthony Morgan,Hayley Boxall,Jason L Payne |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/26338076221094845 |
| Published date | 01 September 2022 |
| Date | 01 September 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Reporting to police by intimate
partner violence victim-survivors
during the COVID-19 pandemic
Anthony Morgan and Hayley Boxall
Australian Institute of Criminology, Canberra, Australia
Jason L Payne
University of Wollongong, Australia
Abstract
There is evidence from around the world that rates of intimate partner violence (IPV)
recorded by police have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, not all studies
or data sources have shown a consistent increase, and it is not clear how these observed
trends may have been influenced by changes in the propensity of victim-survivors to contact
police during the pandemic. We use data from a large sur vey of women in Australia drawn
from a national online research panel to examine correlates of police reporting and barriers
to help-seeking among a subset of respondents who had experienced physical or sexual IPV
during the period of the first national lockdown. Victim-survivors were less likely to have con-
tacted police following the most recent incident if the time spent at home with their partner
had increased. They were also more likely to say they were unable to safely seek advice or
support on at least one occasion. Police were more likely to be contacted by the victim-sur-
vivor if they or their partner had lost their job or taken a pay cut, but there was no relation-
ship with changes in financial stress. Results suggest containment measures introduced in
response to COVID-19 may have influenced help-seeking behavior among IPV victim-survi-
vors. This needs to be considered when conducting or interpreting studies on the impact
of the pandemic on IPV using police data. Proactive responses to support IPV victim-survivors
are needed during current and future restrictions and periods of reduced mobility.
Keywords
Intimate partner violence, help-seeking, police, victims, COVID-19
Date received: 11 February 2022; accepted: 30 March 2022
Corresponding author:
Anthony Morgan, Australian Institute of Criminology, GPO Box 1936, Canberra City, ACT 2601, Australia.
Email: anthony.morgan@aic.gov.au
Article
Journal of Criminology
2022, Vol. 55(3) 285–305
© The Author(s) 2022
Article reuse guidelines:
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DOI: 10.1177/26338076221094845
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Introduction
The SARS-CoV-2 novel coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) pandemic, and the public health mea-
sures that have been implemented to contain the virus, have had a profound impact on
people’s lives. Concerns about the implications for a “shadow pandemic”of intimate partner
violence (IPV) were raised almost immediately (van Gelder et al., 2020). The effects of the pan-
demic in terms of financial stress and economic insecurity, limits on mobility during lockdown
periods which prevent victim-survivors from being able to temporarily escape abusive partners,
reduced access to formal and informal sources of support, and the trauma associated with unrest
and instability, were all expected to exacerbate the risk of IPV, particularly for women
(Peterman et al., 2020). There is now a large body of evidence that suggests the pandemic
has impacted IPV in low-, middle-, and high-income countries (Bourgault et al., 2021;
Peterman & O’Donnell, 2020; Piquero et al., 2021).
Routinely collected police data, including calls for service, recorded incidents and arrest
data have been used extensively to measure the impact of the pandemic on IPV. These estab-
lished data sources allow for trends pre- and post-pandemic to be compared. Different methods
have been employed, but most studies have compared actual recorded rates of violence with
synthetic forecast rates based on pre-pandemic trends, while others have exploited variation
in the intensity and timing of restrictions in different localities to determine the effect of con-
tainment measures on IPV. Piquero et al. (2021) conducted a systematic review and
meta-analysis of 18 studies which used officially recorded rates of domestic violence to
measure the impact of the pandemic, the majority of which analyzed police data (especially
calls for service data). They reported an average increase in domestic violence incidents of
8%. However, not all studies included in the review observed an increase in IPV, nor have sub-
sequent studies, including those conducted outside of the United States (Freeman & Leung,
2020; Hoehn-Velasco et al., 2020; Silverio-Murillo et al., 2020). While calls to police have
increased in many cities (Leslie & Wilson, 2020; Nix & Richards, 2021), recorded incidents
and arrests have not (Bullinger et al., 2020; Miller et al., 2020). These mixed findings may
be due to the differential impacts of locality-specific restrictions on recorded violence
(Nivette et al., 2021). Other factors may be at play, such as a decline in police–citizen
contact during the pandemic, an increase in unsubstantiated calls by third parties, an increase
in less serious violence (especially involving first-time victim-survivors) that does not meet the
threshold for arrest, or increases in some forms of violence but not others (e.g., an increase in
current partner violence but fall in IPV involving former partners) (Bullinger et al., 2020;
Ivandic et al., 2020; Leslie & Wilson, 2020; Miller et al., 2020). It is also possible that it
may be a consequence of changes in the rate of reporting to police, especially among certain
groups of vulnerable victim-survivors.
Implicit in studies that have used police data to measure the impact of the COVID-19 pan-
demic on IPV is an assumption that rates of victim-survivor reporting or help-seeking have
remained constant. In other words, any increase or decrease in recorded rates of IPV is a func-
tion of actual increases or decreases in victimization. We know, however, that the majority of
victims do not seek assistance from police (Akers & Kaukinen, 2009; Felson et al., 2002;
Stavrou et al., 2016; Voce & Boxall, 2018). It is possible that public health containment mea-
sures associated with COVID-19 have further compounded the problem of under-reporting of
IPV (Boxall et al., 2020; Gama et al., 2021; Pfitzner et al., 2020). While studies using police
data to measure the impact of COVID-19 have acknowledged the issue of victim-survivor
286 Journal of Criminology 55(3)
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