Over the past year and a half, many New Yorkers have been staying at home as the fight against COVID-19 wages.
But what happens if home isn’t safe? Unfortunately, we now know the answer to that. Incidents of domestic violence are on the rise, primarily because people have been isolated at home.
It’s become such an issue that in February of this year, TIME Magazine ran a story in which it called domestic violence “a Pandemic within the COVID-19 Pandemic."
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, so Capital Tonight reached out to Kelli Owens, executive director of the New York State Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence, to see whether the national rise in domestic violence is being seen in New York.
“What we’ve seen is an increase in calls to our Domestic Violence Hotline,” Owens said. “But calls into law enforcement for intervention have dropped.”
Calls into the Domestic Violence Hotline surged in August 2020 by about 75% above the previous year.
“During this time, we also started a 'text & chat' line which the state had not had before,” Owens said. “It operates 24/7. We started this option because people were at home possibly with their abuser and this was a different method through which they could reach out for help.”
New York state now has three ways you can reach out for help if you are experiencing domestic violence. They include:
- a hotline: 800-942-6906
- a text line: 844-997-2121
- a live web chat: opdv.ny.gov