The impact of COVID-19 on domestic violence and criminal justice system : perspectives from the EU member states

The impact of COVID-19 pandemic has been felt across different countries, including the European Union (EU) Member States and it is about time to undertake a study to assess and understand its potential consequences. In particular, the containment measures frequently imposed by governments not only affected service deliveries, but also led to shut downs of places of work. Moreover, due to lockdowns and curfews, family members were affected in the sense that they were confined to their homes and only allowed to leave home to get essential services. This made life more difficult for spousal partners that live in the same house but are not in a good working relationship. It is suspected that the COVID-19 pandemic thus, created an environment conducive for domestic violent. Perpetrators of gender-based domestic violence were more likely to cause more physical and psychological harm to vulnerable partners. Since the impact of COVID-19 also affected service delivery, it is very likely that the justice system was equally greatly affected and therefore obstructing many citizens from seeking legal redress and asserting their rights in the courts of justice. Moreover, the effect of COVID-19 also likely placed considerable additional demands on the police service and as a result some distress calls might have received longer response time. The present paper focuses on six EU Member States (Hungary, Poland, Germany, France, Italy and Spain) with a view to assessing the impact of COVID-19 on domestic violence and the criminal justice system