Munich (dpa) - Especially in families in quarantine and with acute financial worries, women experienced domestic violence during the Corona crisis.
This is the result of an online survey of around 3800 women between the ages of 18 and 65. According to this, 3.1 percent of women reported having had at least one physical conflict during the period of strict contact restrictions, such as beatings. According to the mothers' statements, the children were violently punished at 6.5 percent. It was not clear whether the violence in this case came from the woman or the man.
If the women were in quarantine at home, the numbers rose sharply: Then 7.5 percent reported physical violence, in 10.5 percent of the cases children suffered violence. The information was similarly dramatic when the family had acute financial worries. Physical violence then hit women in 8.4 percent of the cases, children in 9.8 percent. Short-time work or the loss of a partner's job also increased violence in the families. The numbers were highest when one of the partners was afraid or depressed. Here there was 9.7 percent physical violence against women and 14.3 percent violence against children.
The social scientist at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), Janina Steinert, and the economist Cara Ebert from the RWI Leibniz Institute for Economic Research carried out the study. The question was asked between April 22 and May 8, 2020 after the previous month. The scientists did not provide comparative figures from before the pandemic - these are not meaningful, since previous studies have taken significantly longer periods into account.
TUM study online
Previous study on domestic violence
