Abstract
The global pandemic caused by a new strain of Coronavirus has brought the Italian government to adopt quarantine, isolation, and lockdown strategies as restrictive measures to reduce the virus spread. Being forced to stay at home could significantly increase the likelihood of episodes of home-based violence and could also be accompanied by a limited possibility of complaints or defense by the victim. The present study aimed to document, through the use of newspaper articles, the characteristics of domestic violence during the lockdown period related to COVID-19 in Italy (from 9 March 2020 up to 18 May 2020) and compare the results with the same period in 2019. The results showed an increase in domestic violence during the lockdown period compared to the same period the year before and highlighted the differences between the dynamics and violent behavior between the two periods examined. The results and limitations of this research are discussed with reference to the literature.
Highlights
Domestic Violence and Abuse (DVA) is an important and widespread public health problem related to physical morbidity, psychological morbidity and mortality [1]
The terms DVA and Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) are used in the research field as synonymous to describe some form of abusive behavior upon one’s significant other
The episodes had to relate to events that could be identified as domestic violence, homicide or attempted homicide or homicide–suicide
Summary
Domestic Violence and Abuse (DVA) is an important and widespread public health problem related to physical morbidity, psychological morbidity and mortality [1]. It is important to distinguish DVA from IPV; DVA considers different kinds of abuse, such as child and elderly abuse in a household, while IPV is a form of DVA that refers to violence by a current or former spouse or partner in an intimate relationship against the other spouse or partner [4]. These forms of violence usually involve women as the main victims, for what concerns IPV [5,6].
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