Sheltered-In-Place: Domestic Violence during COVID-19

March 2020 marked the closure of thousands of workplaces, schools and other services to comply with government-issued lockdowns to prevent the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) across the Canadian population. While the intent of the stay-at-home orders was to provide safety for the surrounding communities from the pandemic, many victims of domestic abuse soon found themselves confined to the root of their trauma for the sake of public health. Dubbed the “pandemic within a pandemic” by the media, 54% of responding victim services have reported an increase in the number of served domestic violence victims between mid-March and early July of 2020 [1,2], and police-reported calls for domestic disturbances have also increased 12%, according to data compiled from 17 police services across Canada [3].

The role of context in understanding the use of tactical officers: A brief research note

A small body of research suggests that the use of police tactical officers has become normalized in that they now commonly respond to “routine” calls rather than being restricted to high-risk situations. However, this research has tended to rely on crude data (i.e., call type), which fails to account for the context of the calls (e.g., the presence of potential risk factors that might warrant tactical resources). In this brief research note, we sought to expand upon previous literature by examining the risk factors associated with tactical calls in a Canadian police service. We found that various risk factors were present in many of the calls that tactical officers responded to, some of which might be classified as “routine” (suicide threats, well-being checks, domestic disturbances, etc.). The presence of such risk factors highlights the need to consider context when attempting to understand the use (and consequences) of tactical officers. More rigorous tracking of these factors by police services will facilitate such research and inform policies around the use of tactical resources.

Preventing Ordinary and Extraordinary Violence

The paradigm of the armed and dangerous mass killer in public opinion and legislation is a homicidal-suicidal stranger hunting in public. Yet half of all firearms-related homicides take place in the home, typically among intimates and people known to the slain. Drawing on data from the National Violent Death Reporting System, this chapter shows that even in the context of extraordinary violence by the homicidal-suicidal, the major early red flags and risk factors involve seemingly ordinary smaller-scale assaults and domestic disturbances. Firearms laws prevent individuals convicted of crimes of domestic violence or under court-issued restraining orders from possessing firearms. The problem is that many perpetrators never come to the attention of a court. Based on these findings regarding what current legal screens miss, this chapter discusses how police discretion and scene-of the-assault procedure for “ordinary” domestic violence can help prevent escalation to the feared extraordinary violence of homicidal-suicidal mass killings.

Domestic Disturbances and Fatal Police Shootings: An Analysis of the Washington Post’s Data

Domestic disturbances are often touted as one of the most dangerous incidents to which police officers respond. Nevertheless, research examining the relative dangerousness of these incidents to responding officers is mixed. Recently, media outlets have compiled rich data on fatal police shootings, which provides the opportunity to examine police responses to domestic disturbances in a different light. Using data compiled by The Washington Post, this study explored whether domestic disturbances that resulted in a fatal shooting were more likely than other fatal shooting incidents to have involved: (a) a civilian armed with a firearm or toy/replica firearm or (b) a civilian who posed an imminent threat to officer or public safety. Findings suggest that there were some, albeit not many, differences in these outcomes between domestic disturbances and seven other incident types. Avenues for future research in this area are provided, along with a discussion about the availability of current data on this topic.