THE FORENSIC ASSESSMENT OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE CASES DURING THE START OF ISOLATION DUE TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

Introduction: social isolation is an important resource to slow down the speed of contamination during the COVID-19 pandemic, however it can intensify abusive behavior among couples or family members. Objective: to present demographic and criminal data of victims of domestic violence assessed at the Clinic of Forensics and Psychosocial Service of the Medical-Legal Department of Porto Alegre. Method: retrospective survey of data, which analyzed interviews of 47 victims of domestic violence, between April and May 2020. The sample consisted of 30 cases of intimate partner violence (IPV) and 17 cases of family violence (VF). Sociodemographic and criminal variables and the opinion on the dynamics of violence in quarantine were analyzed. Result: domestic violence predominantly affected female victims (96.6% of intimate partner violence and 58.8% of family violence). The male gender was a victim of family violence in extreme age groups. Women suffered violence throughout their life cycle, but aggressions by intimate partners showed peaks in adolescence and youth. Children were abused by close relatives and victims over 60 years of age suffered physical violence from their children or sons-in-law. In intimate partner violence, 53% of the sample reported aggression by ex-partners, between 15 days and two years’ timeframe. In the opinion of 90.3% of women, quarantine did not change the frequency or intensity of abusive acts. Conclusion: violence in the domestic environment predominantly affects people in vulnerable situations such as children, women and the elderly.