Domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic in the territory of Kragujevac: A pandemic within pandemic?

Abstract

The subject of the paper is domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper presents the results of research on the state of reported domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic in the territory of the Kragujevac Police Department, aiming to gain a deeper insight into the mechanisms of victimization by domestic violence during the pandemic. The results of the research indicate new patterns of victimization, new violence and new categories of perpetrators, as well as an increase in the volume of recurring violence in the family, which is why the question can be raised whether the downward trend of reported violence in the critical period reflects the real state of this type of violence during the pandemic. It can be reasonably assumed that during the pandemic, due to social isolation and the constant presence of abusers, as well as due to the domestic underdevelopment of special mechanisms for reporting violence by calling for help, violence in the family in domestic conditions at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic to a greater extent remained ?locked? within families.