Student’s name

Instructor

Course

Date

Covid 19 and the increase in domestic violence and child abuse

Coronavirus has been a major blow towards every sector of the economy of almost all the countries in the world. This is despite the health system in some of the very strong countries. It still becomes a challenge and some of the countries can’t manage this situation. The United States is not an exception as it is one of the most affected countries in the world currently. Therefore coronavirus can be said to be a disease that does not value or recognize the economic ability or wellne3ss of the healthcare system for it to invade a country. Before America became the hallmark of this virus it was Italy and before then it was china where the disease is believed to originate from. Coronavirus has had a lot of negative effect on the economy in terms of businesses, loss of jobs and many other factors which contribute directly towards the livelihoods of individuals. Apart from this, it has also affected the social life of almost all individuals. This comes with the emphasis on social distancing and the emphasis for people to stay at home; a practice that is not common for most people. Therefore the issue of staying at home has caused a lot of damage to the family members who are trying all possible ways to get away from their stress. Therefore this paper discusses the challenges faced in the family setting due to coronavirus with a focus on the violence against women and children.

Human beings are social beings and therefore it is the nature of anyone to wish to associate with people and learn new things as well as feel the comfort and warmth of other people around them. Therefore it is with this information that we get to know how it becomes very hard for anyone to socially distance themselves from others especially those close friends and family members whom we are used to and who make a big social impact in our lives. However, with all this human connectedness there is still a challenge about how coronavirus tries to remove this bond that has always existed among the people. Therefore the issues of social distancing and staying at home destroys so many vibrant relationships which would otherwise be thriving. However, in all the confusion of coronavirus and the emphasis to stay at home, there is a group of individuals who are not comfortable at all with staying at home due to the hostile environment present there. Some of these are children while others are parents or just intimate partners.

Children and intimate partners of both genders have gone through a lot of challenges and problems during this period as staying at home does not always provide a solution to the loss of contact with their friends and other social individuals. Therefore from the time the corona virus was first discovered in the United States of America even though some government officials were not seriously taking action to curb it, it made a big problem in the social life of everyone. As the individuals went home and most of the companies encouraged their employees to work from home there was a challenge and the desire for some to continue working in their physical locations.

Violence at home can be related and associated with different issues and causes as it affects family unity to a very great extent. Apart from the violence which came about due to the corona virus some families normally have violence related to their financial situation and management, roles in the family, and many other causes of this kind of stress. However, with the prevalence of the corona virus, the causes of violence have shifted drastically whereby we find that the major cause of violence is the stress due to long hours and a lot of time spent at home and most of this time is spent not doing anything very constructive. Therefore the home-based violence can be seen as a way to express what the people are going through and as a way to raise their voices and say that they are tired of staying at home. This is because it is not the nature of human beings to be this stagnant. The relationships which were not seemingly good have as well been deteriorated by the coronavirus and the encouragement of people to stay at home. Therefore this can be said to be a causative factor towards domestic violence.

The violence against children however is termed as a displacement type of violence. This happens in situations whereby the person offended can do nothing against the person who has offended them and therefore they turn to their children and displace the anger with violent actions and practices aimed at the children. A good example would be whereby an individual is unable to confront his husband who had slapped her. With the anger and frustration, the white is likely to turn to their children and finding a small mistake they had done before displace their anger to them by violent actions which may include beating or even punching.

The current statistics of domestic violence are high and therefore they show us how it has become a problem to manage this situation. According to the centers for disease control and prevention one in every three women has undergone domestic violence while one in every four men has undergone domestic violence in the United States. Therefore these statistics show us how difficult it is currently to know if a person is dealing with a person who has undergone domestic violence from an intimate partner. These also tell us how important it is for us to keep a close watch over our friends and those other people who are close to us through the different social media platforms and help to make sure they are okay and safe.

With the rising levels of violence however contrary to the days before the corona virus it is very difficult to report cases or find other means to deal with domestic violence like it was before whereby individuals could stay and share with a friend, report the issue to the police and other means of finding solutions and protecting themselves from these domestic cases of violence. However, these options do not still exist. One of the reasons why they do not exist is that the police and everyone is trying to tell people to manage and solve their challenges from a family point of view as well as find alternative methods which do not expose people to the effects of coronavirus or to the risk of getting this virus.

The effects of domestic violence are many and they affect different people in different ways and how they affect people determines how they see their lives afterward since it is a process of behavior formation. For example, if a person experiences domestic violence they may not easily be able to engage in the marriage any other time in the future and they may decide to stay single for the rest of their lives and therefore this matters a lot when it comes to deciding what is to be kept as well as what is to be left out once a person has undergone domestic violence. The other effects of domestic violence include physical injury, the risk of chronic diseases, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and risky sexual and substance abuse. These effects have a great effect on the lives of many people and therefore a person needs to try to find solutions even though not easily possible within this period. Therefore there is a need for people to keep a close watch over their friends and those individuals who are at a high risk of being exposed to domestic violence.

Apart from just experiencing the issues at hand for the individuals, a person can experience even a worse kind of humiliation and domestic violence due to their race, sex, and other factors in play. For example, the LGBTQ community is exposed to a lot of danger and risk of getting violence from those people who are yet to fully accept and accommodate them as part of society. For example in a family if the parents have a gay child they may not fully accept what the child inclinations are and therefore in case of a small mistake the child may receive violence and therefore this means that this kind of violence can be termed as not only violence but also as child violence. The extent of the risk with which this can happen is increased by the fact that spending most of the time with the parents who do not fully accept this makes is susceptibility towards violence.

Before the corona period, the extent of the abuse was one in three women while during the period of corona it turns out to be 2 in three women. This, therefore, is a worrying trend of things and it is very difficult for society to successfully succeed in combating the effects of the corona virus with this kind of environment and situation. According to amnesty international pandemics of any kind lower the coping capabilities of the women and girls and this makes them highly susceptible to abuse by the family members around them at this particular time. Therefore generally it is the nature of pandemics to harm the social life of most of the individuals present in the geographical region whereby the pandemic is taking place.

Even though there are claims that men are the only perpetrators of intimate partner-based violence this is not truly founded and it does not always mean that men mistreat ladies. This is because to a very big extent men care and love for their families. Therefore through this, it becomes very easy for them to get first-hand information and therefore make decisions on how the family can cope since in most societies the men are the heads of the family. However, all these signs of positivity and ability to change a lot when it comes to the societal beliefs that men are bad do not outlaw their ability to harm and make situations very difficult for their wives and their children. From a general point of view, men are indeed fewer victims of domestic violence while women are the ones who are reported to experience most of the domestic violence. Children are also a great factor to consider in the issue of domestic violence and how it affects them as well as their social life.

The children are at very high risk for domestic violence. This is related closely to the parents and their social status of being. If the parents are agitated there is a likelihood of this being transferred to the children and therefore this makes it difficult for the children since they rely heavily on their parents. Currently, with the coronavirus pandemic, the parents mostly depended on social institutions before, and therefore right now it is difficult to state that social institutions like child care, schools, extended family, etc. are no longer available and therefore the parents have to stay at home with their children. This continued presence when there has not been a closeness and there has never been this kind of time spent together makes the parents as well as the children nervous and therefore this can easily lead towards making the problem of children violence in case of small misunderstandings within the family unit. Because of this, we can clearly state that even those parents with very high child management skills have their skills and abilities to deal with their children highly tested during this period of Covid 19.

Another problem and risk for the children are that the parents may not have the financial ability to provide everything that is needed by the children and therefore it is very difficult for the children to obtain some of the luxuries they might have had been used to before. This makes it very difficult for the kids to enjoy life and this to some of the children may come out as a form of neglect and lack of care and concern. Another issue that arises in this is that the parents may also not have the technology and the devices needed to keep the children connected to their friends and this, therefore, acts to cut them off from a lot of social benefits and separation from their friends.

According to CDC one in every 7 children has experienced child abuse. In the year 2018 alone nearly 1770 children died because of neglect and abuse in the United States of America. Therefore child abuse is a very sensitive and important aspect of the children’s growth and development as if forms part and parcel of what the child becomes later in life. This, therefore, makes us able to understand that life is a formation process and therefore what eh children go through when they are very young forms a part of them and this part of them may cause them negative influences later in life especially when they want to do something and they find themselves unable to do this due to the situations which they face and how the issues they faced like violence were dealt with when they were young.

Children can be said to be vulnerable and very susceptible and therefore if the effects caused to them by the abuse which they might face in life are not treated and rectified when they are young it becomes a great problem for them later in life to deal with.

In conclusions, therefore, we can say that the life of the different people during this pandemic period is at risk and therefore it is important to keep a close watch over everyone and what they are experiencing or going through. This is to make sure that the different people who might be going through difficult situations are easily identifiable and they can be assisted through all the possible ways.Works cited

“How COVID-19 May Increase Domestic Violence and Child Abuse.” American Psychological Association, American Psychological Association, www.apa.org/topics/covid-19/domestic-violence-child-abuse.

Evans, Megan L., et al. “A Pandemic within a Pandemic – Intimate Partner Violence during Covid-19: NEJM.” New England Journal of Medicine, 16 Mar. 2021, www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2024046.

Omondi, Published by Billy. “Domestic Violence: The Shadow Pandemic.” Amnesty International 22 May 2020, www.amnestykenya.org/domestic-violence-the-shadow-pandemic/.

Peterman, Amber, and Megan O’Donnell. “COVID-19 and Violence Against Women and Children: A Third Research Round-Up for the 16 Days of Activism.” Center for Global Development (December). https://www. cgdev. org/sites/default/files/covid-and violence-against-women-and-children-three. pdf (accessed February 7, 2021) (2020).

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). “Intimate partner violence and child abuse considerations during COVID-19.” (2020).