DOES DOMESTIC VIOLENCE INCREASE AFTER DISASTER?

Domestic violence is a social fact contributing to the vulnerability of women to disaster. Women in violent relationships are a vulnerable population less visibly at risk than poor women, refugees, single mothers, widows, senior or disabled women. Indeed, violence against women in intimate relations crosses these and other social lines, impacting an estimated one in four women in the US and Canada and as many as 60 percent in parts of Africa, Latin America and Asia.¹

Violence against women is unlikely not to be present after as well as before disaster, but does it increase? Barriers to reporting increase in the event of widespread damage, but some indicators suggest that it does, though the data are very limited:

• Sexual and domestic violence are often identified as issues for women refugees in temporary camps.²
  
  
• Some field reports of social impacts include abuse, as in this account of an Australian flood: "Human relations were laid bare and the strengths and weaknesses in relationships came more sharply into focus. Thus, socially isolated women became more isolated, domestic violence increased, and the core of relationships with family, friends and spouses were exposed."³ Increased violence was also noted in field reports from the Philippines after the Mt. Pinatubo eruption⁴ and after the Exxon Valdez oil spill.⁵
  
  
• The national Canadian press reported domestic violence increasing during the massive 1998 ice storm in Quebec and Ontario. A Montreal Urban Community Police Chief reported that one in four calls he had received the past week came from women about abuse. Crisis calls were not up at the local shelter but the hot line had been closed by the storm for two days.⁶
  
  
• The director of a Santa Cruz battered women’s shelter reported requests for temporary restraining orders rose 50% after the Loma Prieta quake. Observing that housing shortages were restricting women’s ability to leave violent relationships, she urged that "when the community considers replacement housing issues, battered women should not be overlooked."⁷ Five months after the earthquake, a United Way survey of over 300 service providers ranked "protective services for women, children, and elderly" sixth among 41 community services most unavailable to residents.⁸ Reported sexual assault also rose by 300%.⁹
  
  
• Following the Missouri floods of 1993, the average state turn-away rate at shelters rose 111% over the preceding year. An existing federal grant was modified to increase funding to 35 flood-affected programs in an innovative disaster recovery grant targeting both substance abuse and domestic violence. The final report notes that these programs eventually sheltered 400% more flood-impacted women and children than anticipated.¹⁰
  
  
• Following Hurricane Andrew in Miami, spousal abuse calls to the local community helpline increased by 50% ¹¹ and over one-third of 1400 surveyed residents reported that someone in their home had lost verbal or physical control in the two months since the hurricane.¹²
  
  
• A survey of US and Canadian domestic violence programs reported increased service demand as long as six months to a year later in the 13 most severely impacted programs. In Grand Forks, ND, requests for temporary protection orders rose by 18% over the preceding year and counseling with on-going clients rose 59% (July 1996-July 1997).¹³

Compiled by E. Enarson 5/98. For more information: enarson@unixg.ubc.ca.

¹United Nations Social Statistics and Indicators. The World's Women: 1995 Trends. New York: United Nations.
²League of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. 1991. Working With Women in Emergency Relief and Rehabilitation Programmes. Field Studies Paper #2. Geneva Switzerland
³Dobson, Narelle. 1994. "From Under the Mud-Pack: Women and the Charleville Floods." Australian Journal of Emergency Management 9 (2): 11-13.
⁴Delica, Zenaida. 1998. "Women and Children During Disaster: Vulnerabilities and Capacities," forthcoming in The Gendered Terrain of Disaster, edited by Elaine Enarson and Betty Hearn Morrow. Westport, CT: Greenwood.
⁵Palinkas, Lawrence, et al. 1993. "Social, Cultural and Psychological Impacts of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill." Human Organization 52 (1): 1-13.
⁶Globe and Mail January 14, 1998: A6.
⁷United Way of Santa Cruz County 1990. A Post-Earthquake Community Needs Assessment for Santa Cruz County. Aptos, California: United Way of Santa Cruz County: 201. See also Wilson, Jennifer, Brenda Phillips and David Neal. 1998. "Domestic Violence After Disaster," forthcoming in Enarson and Morrow, op.cit.
⁸Ibid, 25.
⁹Commission for the Prevention of Violence Against Women. 1989. Violence Against Women in the Aftermath of the October 17, l989 Earthquake: A Report to the Mayor and City Council of the City of Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz CA.
¹⁰Godina, Victoria and Colleen Coble. 1995. The Missouri Model: The Efficacy of Funding Domestic Violence Programs as Long-Term Disaster Recovery. Final Evaluation Report, December 1995. Jefferson City, Missouri: The Missouri Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
¹¹Laudisio, Gigi. 1993. "Disaster Aftermath: Redefining Response-Hurricane Andrew's Impact on I & R." Alliance of Information and Referral Systems 15: 13-32.
¹²Centers for Disease Control. 1992. Post-Hurricane Andrew Assessment of Health Care Needs and Access to Health Care in Dade County, Florida. EPI-AID 93-09. Miami: Florida Deparatment of Health and Rehabilitative Services.
¹³Enarson, Elaine. 1997. Responding to Domestic Violence and Disaster: Guidelines for Women's Services and Disaster Practitioners. Available from BC Institute Against Family Violence. 409 Granville, Ste. 551, Vancouver BC. Canada V6C 1T2.