Examining coordinated responses to domestic violence

Though the immediate disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic have passed, the six-year anniversary of the event’s onset allows medical professionals, community support organizations and researchers to analyze the pandemic’s challenges and better prepare for the future. University of Delaware Associate Professor Ruth E. Fleury-Steiner has taken up this charge in the area of gender-based violence and offers several recommendations based on new research.

In a new study funded by the National Science Foundation, Fleury-Steiner and her UD co-authors assess the challenges of the coordinated community response (CCR) systems serving victims of domestic violence in 25 U.S. states and territories during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through interviews with domestic violence coalition leaders, they find that the pandemic uniquely disrupted the infrastructure for service coordination, the continuity of law enforcement and legal systems, the maintenance of evidence-based practices and more.

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