Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

1-1-2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education

Advisor

Tina Jaeckle

Committee Member

Grace Telesco

Committee Member

Marcelo Castro

Keywords

Advocate, COVID-19, Domestic, Pandemic, Victim, Violence

Abstract

In December of 2019, a new virus known as COVID-19 emerged out of Wuhan, China. COVID-19 is a respiratory virus which is highly contagious and, in some cases, lethal. By January 20th, 2020, the United States reported its first case of COVID-19. Between January and December of 2020 there were 18.7 million cases and 329,000 deaths in the United States alone. Globally, during that time frame, there were 79.8 million cases and 1.75 million deaths. Due to the highly contagious and dangerous nature of COVID-19, countries across the world have attempted to promote public health by enacting social distancing measures. These social distancing measures have consisted of national quarantines, border closures, work-from-home schedules, school closures, and stay-at home orders. While these social distancing measures have proven to be effective in slowing the spread of COVID-19, they have also been directly linked to dramatic upticks in domestic violence rates across the world. Rising domestic violence rates mean rising demands on domestic violence resources, including domestic violence advocates. This study aims to generate an understanding of the perspectives of victim advocates on how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted their jobs in terms of service provision. Specifically, the research in this study has investigated how these victim advocates have adapted to overcome the challenges that COVID-19 brought. This study focused on three specific aspects of service provision: (1) work hours, (2) victim contact, and (3) emotional burnout.

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