Economic pressure and conditions of uncertainty intensified threats and physical violence by 11% in 2020 • Even families who have not been exposed to this before are unsure
A home for women suffering from violence
Photography:
Efrat Eshel
The year 2020 will be remembered as a terrible year when it comes to domestic violence and especially towards women and children.
Data obtained by Israel Today show that the number of women who stayed in shelters for battered women with their children jumped by tens of percent.
The police report hundreds of thousands of calls received in 2020 to the 100 hotlines that required police intervention on suspicion of domestic violence.
The data show that the most significant catalyst in this regard was the tight closures that contributed greatly to the increase in domestic violence in 2020.
For example, after the first closure, in May and June, about 61% of the total number of women in shelters stayed in shelters in 2020. In May, 208 women stayed in shelters, compared with only 167 in April, a figure that is a 25% jump.
A similar trend is also evident in the months following the second closure, when between September when the closure began and November, there was a jump of about 11% in the number of women staying in the shelters.
As mentioned, periods of closure, unemployment and dismissals became a family "pressure cooker" and led to an increase in domestic violence.
Police data show that economic pressure and conditions of uncertainty have significantly intensified threats and physical violence behaviors, even in families not previously exposed.
Police data show that in 2020, 40,986 cases were opened for domestic violence offenses, while in 2019, 36,224 were opened.
Police are reporting hundreds of thousands of reports to the 100 hotlines that required police intervention for domestic violence including sexual offenses.
The change in the distribution of time in the nuclear family, police say, "significantly reduced the range of offenses that were in the public space and caused some of the crime to migrate into homes."
Police data further show that 12% of the victims of violence in 2020 were minors, 82.5% were adults and the rest were elderly.
About 31% of the victims of violence were males and the rest 69% were women.
In 2019, 6,935 indictments were filed against defendants for domestic violence, and in 2020 the number jumped to 8,073 indictments.
During the Corona period, the police allowed citizens to complain online and this did allow the victims of the crime in the home space better access to file a complaint.
On the other hand, the fact that the educational institutions were closed made it difficult to locate injured minors.
Struggling in the pressure cooker
"The Corona period has a severe impact on the family unit," says Adv. Dikla Somekh Krem, who specializes in family law, adding that "normative clients also report that under the pressure of closures, and the fear of losing livelihoods and stability in life, their relationships have deteriorated.
"Obviously, women who have suffered domestic violence in the first place have been at much greater risk in the past year."
"Official data from the Ministry of Labor, Welfare and Social Services leave no room for doubt as to the aggravation of women and children at risk following the corona. While in 2019 there was a slight decrease in the number of women and children staying in shelters for women and children victims of violence, The number of women and children who stayed in the shelters increased by about 11% and by about 10.5%, respectively. "
