Exit has been reliably informed that there has been an increase in cases of domestic violence over the last week. A source who is the Director of an institution that provides assistance to those who are violated confirmed that they have noticed an increase in cases over the last seven days when compared to other weeks. They said they believe that this could be related to the rules that people must stay at home.
This would mirror expectations and instances of such increases in other parts of the world during this time.
Director of US-based domestic violence organisation LifeWire, Rachel Krinsky told Vice that “we expect rising tension and likely rising violence which makes everyone more vulnerable; the survivor and the children in the home.”
Rates and severity of abuse are expected to increase as those with already abusive partners are trapped at home with them, unable to leave for work. Add to this the increased stress of worrying about losing income and jobs and tense situations that can aggravate abusers will sadly result in more incidents.
A spike in divorce cases has also been noticed in China following the outbreak of Coronavirus.
It was reported that the marriage registry in Dazhou in the Sichuan Province has recorded over 300 divorce petitions since February 24th. They clarified that the number of applications had greatly increased since the virus outbreak and citizens were told to remain in their homes.
Officials said that they believed the increased number of divorces could be due to couples being forced to spend too much time together due to quarantine restrictions.
Lu Shijun, manager of the Dazhou marriage registry said:
“The divorce rate in the district has soared compared to before. Young people are spending a lot of time at home. They tend to get into heated arguments because of something petty and rush into getting a divorce.”
But it’s not all bad news- some are predicting that the coronavirus lockdown could lead to an increase in the number of births occurring in December. Couples forced to remain at home with little else to do may find themselves ignoring social distancing guidelines, leading to a boom in babies nine months from now.
Baby booms typically follow adverse weather events, the end of military conflicts and other social and natural disasters.
