Pandemic side effect: Domestic violence spikes, grows more deadly

July 30 2020, www.cincinnati.com

Terry DeMio, Anne Saker and Cameron Knight

An upswing of domestic violence was a feared consequence of the coronavirus pandemic. Now Hamilton County has evidence for it.

Women Helping Women, the southwest Ohio nonprofit that advocates and cares for victims of gender-based violence, reported Thursday it had registered a 23% increase in the number of clients from March 16 to June 30 compared to the same period a year ago.

The agency’s analysis also showed calls to its hotline jumped 53% this year over the same 14 weeks when compared to the 2019 time frame.

“COVID doesn’t cause gender-based violence. Economic stress doesn’t cause gender violence,” said Kristin Shrimplin, the agency’s president and chief executive officer. “It just adds fuel to the fire.”

In March, Shrimplin said, calls for help rose rapidly, about 20%. After the stay-at-home order was issued in mid-month, the calls dropped because, Shrimplin said, fewer domestic violence survivors could feel safe calling a hotline while at home full time with a perpetrator.

Lt. Col. Mike John of the Cincinnati Police Department works with Shrimplin on a dedicated unit that responds to domestic violence calls with police and WHW advocates. John said that even though police haven’t seen a jump in criminal reports, he is not surprised by the increase in hotline calls.

“It’s not like a simple assault at a bar,” he said. “We are very much dedicated to finding who that aggressor is and removing him from that situation. They (Women Helping Women advocates) are left to pick up the pieces.”

Women Helping Women provides that support, he said, no matter if the survivor decides to press charges.

Domestic incidents have been more violent

Shrimplin said she found another cause for alarm. More people calling the hotline had experienced brutal assaults that can be omens of fatal violence in intimate relationships.

“Strangulation, sexual assault, use of weapons, they were all up,” Shrimplin said.

Women Helping Women, like many such agencies in the United States, uses the Danger Assessment tool, a system of identifying particular domestic violence – non-fatal strangulation, for example – that can lead to femicide, the killing of a woman.

The dedicated group of WHW advocates and Cincinnati police working together is called Domestic Violence Enhanced Response Team, or DVERT. Advocates go on domestic violence calls with police to help survivors.

“What we were hearing on those calls, what we were seeing on scene with survivors, they were getting increased red flags to be killed compared to last year,” Shrimplin said.

New victims

The Women Helping Women report also found people who’d never before experienced physical violence at home now calling for help.

It’s an unsurprising development. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s report on intimate-partner violence during the pandemic notes that loss of jobs, income in general, a disconnect of social services and help groups, a fear of getting COVID-19 and other issues now “may stimulate violence in families where it didn’t exist before and worsen situations in homes where mistreatment and violence has been a problem.”

The April shootings

In April, six female-identified victims were fatally shot in Hamilton County, compared to five for all of 2019. The Women Helping Women report said, “While COVID-19 was not cause of death, the impact on how society functioned greatly increased the harm and lethality of individuals who were already facing long standing system barriers to safety and resources.”

6 local women have been fatally shot during the stay-at-home order – more than all of 2019

Not all the homicides have been identified as domestic violence-related, police said.

But an Enquirer analysis of data from last year shows women killed in Cincinnati are more likely to be killed in partner violence or child abuse situations than any other reason.

Shrimplin said criminal reports will lag the number of calls to the agency’s hotline. “If people show up to hospitals and work with us, if we show up at different community points, if they call our hotline, that doesn’t mean that the survivors engage with the justice system.”

John of the Cincinnati police said of WHW, “That’s why their expertise is so important.”

How can victims get help

Women Helping Women has stepped up its services.

• In April, with no additional funding, the agency added text-ability to its hotline.
• Its volunteers bring masks, hand sanitizers and other personal protection products to the survivors it serves.
• When possible, the agency provides families gift cards for groceries or Lyft rides.

The state of Ohio is funneling new money to programs for domestic violence survivors.

• Attorney General Dave Yost announced $8.75 million from the federal CARES Act would go to support rape crisis centers and domestic violence shelters, in addition to $1 million to combat COVID-19 scams throughout the state.
• Gov. Mike DeWine also announced that 66 local victim service projects have been awarded a total of $3.2 million to support victims of crime. The projects will be funded by grants through the Family Violence Prevention & Services Act grants program.

If you are threatened or harmed or know someone who may be in danger, call or text the Women Helping Women hotline: 513-381-5610.