Strict stay-at-home orders put domestic violence victims in tougher situation, say police, advocates

Democratic attorneys general this week demanded Congress renew the Violence Against Women Act, saying its lapse more than a year ago was bad enough, but it is unconscionable amid the coronavirus crisis.

Police and sheriffs say there’s an even more immediate answer — governors should relax their stay-at-home orders, so victims have a chance to move around outside their homes and, potentially, escape an abuser.

Those stay-at-home directives may be helping slow the devastation of the coronavirus, but they also have sentenced vulnerable people to continuous weeks in the same homes with abusive spouses or partners.

“We are starkly reminded that home is not a safe place for survivors and their children. An abuser may take advantage of an already stressful situation like this to gain more control,” said Deborah Vagins, the president of the National Network to End Domestic Violence.

Some law enforcement officials agree.

“I want people out of their house. We have an uptick in domestics,” Dar Leaf, sheriff of Michigan’s Barry County, recently told Fox News.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s original shutdown order was one of the most stringent in the country, shutting down auto manufacturers, barring people from using their boats, keeping garden stores from operating, and even preventing people who owned two homes in the state from traveling between them.

Sheriff Leaf had made clear last month that he wouldn’t strictly enforce the stay-at-home order, taking each case individually.

But potential victims may still face tough decisions about their situations, at a time when the pandemic is exacerbating issues such as unemployment that often trigger domestic violence while disrupting the ability of victims to get help.

“People who are called family annihilators, who killed not only their wives but the children are almost always unemployed,” said Deborah Tucker, president of the National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence.

Sheriff Mark Dannels of Cochise County, Arizona, said he has seen a rise in family violence, but not other crimes such as drunken driving.

“When you have alcohol consumption up 300%, you can imagine what the consequences are we are dealing with in our community,” he told Newsmax.

The Coalition to End Domestic Violence tried to get a handle on the data. It Googled news reports about domestic violence across several states and found that eight had decreased, five claimed levels were steady and only one state — Idaho — reported an increase.

But the Marshall Project, a news organization focused on criminal justice issues, said the drop in domestic violence calls to police likely results from underreporting because victims have a harder time reaching out to police during the lockdown.

The Democratic attorneys general who wrote to Congress this week demanding renewal of VAWA said they expect not only an increase in cases, but also of the severity of abuse, given the stresses of the pandemic.

The expiration of the 1994 law hasn’t cut off funding — that’s part of the annual spending bills Congress passes. But advocates say it has created uncertainty and confusion for groups who now are dealing with new stresses thanks to the coronavirus.

Shelters have to figure out how to maintain social distancing, while telephone hotlines are struggling to transition to remote call centers.

Some county clerks are putting the public on notice that they are staying open to be able to process domestic violence injunctions, which can protect victims.

Though calls on family violence and aggravated assaults are still coming in, some cities have reported a significant drop in other major crimes, including murder.

Miami reported going seven straight weeks without a homicide for the first time since 1957.