Cost generated by domestic violence during the covid 19 pandemic

Corina Drăgan

doi:10.36004/nier.es.2021.2-09

Abstract

The study aims to analyse the evolution of costs generated by domestic violence during the Covid-19 pandemic in the Romanian space. The cost generated by violence is not well highlighted in Romania's budgets, however there are methods that may be used to quantify it. In our country, studies focused more on the analysis of the dimension of domestic violence, and less on the analysis of the costs generated by this phenomenon. However, an analysis of these costs was carried out in 2014 by the European Institute for Gender Equality, which estimated the costs of gender-based violence in the European Union. For this study I will use administrative data at the national level, which come from local entities with responsibilities in preventing and combating domestic violence. The study I propose will be an analysis of secondary data provided by the authorities, but will also contain comparative methods (compared to 2020, the year of the Covid-19 pandemic). The results will describe the evolution of the costs generated by domestic violence during the pandemic.

Highlights

In Romania, domestic violence is defined as "any inaction or intentional action of physical, sexual, psychological, economic, social, spiritual or cyber violence, which occurs in the family or domestic environment or between spouses or ex-spouses, as well as between current or former partners, regardless of whether the aggressor lives or has lived with the victim” (Romani et al, 2018)
In the “Assessing the costs of violence against women in Romania” report (Dragan, 2021) it was mentioned that in Romania, the studies focused on the analysis of the dimension of domestic violence and less on the analysis of the costs generated by this phenomenon
Measures imposed by the authorities to limit the spread of the Covid pandemic 19 had effects on the reporting of domestic violence cases, and on the decisions to use the services offered in these situations

Summary

Introduction

In Romania, domestic violence is defined as "any inaction or intentional action of physical, sexual, psychological, economic, social, spiritual or cyber violence, which occurs in the family or domestic environment or between spouses or ex-spouses, as well as between current or former partners, regardless of whether the aggressor lives or has lived with the victim” (Romani et al, 2018). On June 18, 2018, the Romanian Parliament adopted two very important draft laws in preventing and combating domestic violence, which practically represented the true implementation of the provisions of the Istanbul Convention. The methodological report used two strategies: the first was to build in detail, piece by piece for each of the main types of costs, and the second strategy was to estimate costs across the EU based on extrapolation from the Member State case which has the best evidence to support the costing exercise (The EU Mutual Learning Programme in Gender Equality Methodologies and good practices on assessing the costs of violence against women - online - 7-8 July 2021, f.a.). The report has compiled a European ranking of spending on gender discrimination and violence for each of the EU-28 states. (Fig.[1])

Methods

Results

Conclusion