Plummeting Divorce Numbers Expose Coronavirus-Abuse Falsehood

PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Rebecca Stewart

Telephone: 513-479-3335

Plummeting Divorce Numbers Expose Coronavirus-Abuse Falsehood

WASHINGTON / July 6, 2020 – As New York City begins to relax its shutdown policies, divorce filings have fallen dramatically, according to a recent report in the New York Post. From May 25 to June 24, only 1,265 divorce papers were filed, a 45% drop from the 2,300 requests that were typically filed each month during the pre-COVID era (1). The news defies earlier predictions that coronavirus stay-at-home policies were going to exacerbate partner conflict and trigger a “horrifying spike” in domestic violence incidents (2).

Beginning in March, domestic violence groups began to issue doomsday warnings of an impending “surge” in partner abuse. On March 23, the National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence issued an Alert claiming that “Survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault are facing extreme danger and risk,” without providing hard evidence to support the warning (3).

Others predicted that domestic violence shelters would be overwhelmed with persons seeking refuge from their abusers. As a result, Congress included $45 million in its coronavirus-relief CARES Act for the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act, as well as additional funding for the National Domestic Violence Hotline (4).

But the dire forecasts turned out to be based more on fancy than on fact.

Among reports gathered from 33 police departments across the country, 11 noted a decline and 19 saw level numbers of domestic violence cases. Only three offices reported an increase of 10% or more in domestic violence cases, and these increases were modest (5).

In New York, for example, “The New York City Police Department said that reports of domestic violence have ‘progressively declined’ since the onset of the pandemic. The crimes fell nearly 15% last month compared to March 2019.” And Melinda Katz, district attorney in Queens, reported, “domestic violence arrests have fallen nearly 40%.” (6)

Likewise, abuse shelters have not been “flooded” with abuse victims. To the contrary, a CNBC report revealed, “Domestic violence programs and shelters in New York, the state with the most confirmed coronavirus cases, are seeing a decline in at-risk clients as people stay at home to prevent the spread of the outbreak.” (7) Similar reductions have been reported in other cities (8). One article plaintively asked, “Why Are There So Many Empty Beds in Domestic Violence Shelters?” (9)

None of these articles hinted at the reality that according to the Centers for Disease Control, each year there are 4.2 million male victims and 3.5 million female victims of domestic violence (10).

Over a period of three months, domestic violence organizations issued a series of alarming predictions about an impending “surge” in domestic violence cases. Subsequent events failed to support these claims, and in many states, revealed the opposite to be true. In some cases, unstable marriages now appear to be on the mend.

Domestic violence advocacy groups now need to take determined steps to restore their credibility and regain the public trust.

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