Domestic Violence and Child Maltreatment during COVID-19

Executive summary of the report

• Indicators point to a marked increase in the national trends in domestic violence and child maltreatment related to COVID-19
• Published studies show the large lifetime cost of domestic violence and child maltreatment.
• There is an urgent need to improve health surveillance – the systematic collection, analysis and interpretation of health data. In the context of violence in the home, this means measuring the trends of domestic violence and child maltreatment across different sectors of the population in a systematic way using data that is routinely collected.
• Health surveillance needs to form part of a comprehensive public health approach to reducing family crimes through effective monitoring that supports victims.

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