Domestic violence has spiked on the Island in recent months, as the constraints of isolation and stressors of an ongoing pandemic heighten the risk of home violence and complicate support services.
Among the trends are an increase in domestic assault and battery charges and high numbers of both restraining orders and restraining order violations. The increases mirror a national trend that has seen rates of domestic violence rise across the country during the pandemic. Even more striking on the Island is that while the rates of domestic violence have gone up, calls for help to support services have mostly stayed flat, signaling that victims of abuse locked at home with their abusers in many incidences due to the pandemic face even greater barriers to seek support.