The pandemic isn’t over, and neither is the toll it’s taking on domestic-violence victims | Opinion

“The most vicious of all crimes are domestic crimes.” President Joe Biden said that in 2009 when he was vice president. Twelve years later,domestic violence remains a significant problem.

A recent study that I led on behalf of the Council on Criminal Justice, using data from multiple cities in the United States and around the world, concluded that domestic-violence incidents increased by at least 8% after stay-at-home orders were put into place to curtail the spread of the coronavirus.

A recent nationwide analysis found that, compared to 2019, gun homicides involving intimate partners rose 25% — the highest level in almost 30 years, with women representing more than two-thirds of those killed. Here in Miami, our study also detected some evidence for a spike in domestic violence arrests following COVID-19 stay-at-home orders.

Yet, it is likely that this estimate is a floor and not a ceiling, given that so many incidents of domestic violence are not reported to authorities or, even if reported, not taken seriously. The amount of violence, including emotional violence, exposure to violence, child abuse — and even animal abuse — that has occurred during the pandemic, and as we make our way out of it, is undoubtedly quite high.

Fortunately, President Biden allocated $200 million from the American Rescue Plan to support services to domestic-violence survivors as well as provide supplemental grants to fund domestic-violence services, coalitions, national resources centers and domestic violence hotlines. This is important, but it’s just a start.

The 1994 Violence Against Women Act, which Biden helped lead when he was a senator, focused squarely on ending domestic violence. Earlier this year, the House voted to renew the act, which came with additional provisions. It has been in the Senate for some time, but its path to passing remains partly to mostly cloudy.

Every single elected leader should support this legislation and provide the resources necessary to survivors of domestic abuse. Fortunately, the residents of Miami and Miami-Dade County have mayors — Francis Suarez and, especially, Daniella Levine-Cava, respectively — who have long been a champions of this issue, working in lock-step with the Miami-Dade County Domestic Violence Oversight Board and local agencies such as Lotus House, The Women’s Fund and Camillus House to help domestic violence survivors.

Aside from the federal response, going forward, several additional policy options such as police doing welfare checks on domestic violence survivors; scaling up funding for domestic-violence shelters; and the introduction of apps for cellphones to provide more immediate assistance, there are also opportunities to prevent domestic violence in the future by ensuring that young people do not think it is acceptable to abuse their significant others — or anyone else.

The coronavirus is not just a health pandemic. It has created several pandemics within it. Children lost out on the importance of in-class instruction, developing social skills through interactions, and of course, all the extracurricular activities associated with the educational experience. Businesses lost employees. People everywhere lost their previous “normals” of going to the gym, the movies, concerts and traveling.

But we must not lose sight of the countless number of domestic-violence victims that the pandemic has created. Their suffering, at home and in the workplace, will resonated for them and their families for quite some time. With all that captures our attention, we should not ignore this glaring problem.

This is an everyday issue — for every single one of us.

Alex R. Piquero is chair of the Department of Sociology & Criminology and Arts & Sciences Distinguished Scholar at the University of Miami.