SITUATION ANALYSIS OF COVID-19 ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IN FIJI

ABSTRACT:
COVID-19, a highly contagious and deadly virus rapidly swept across the world from the year 2019 to 2020
killing more than two million people. Due to the magnitude of affect the virus was having, governments were
forced into taking measures that required isolation of the infected from the unaffected, as mitigation to halt
the spread. This brought about the “COVID-19 Lockdown”. Though the Pacific Island Countries (PICs) were
with one of the least numbers of COVID-19 cases, similar measures were implemented as measure to
prevent the virus from entering the countries. Like other countries, PICs like Fiji had a lockdown and this
affected the lifestyles of the people. Amidst the lockdown, there was a rise in domestic violence cases. The
literature review was done using databases; Medline, ProQuest, Embase, and Scopus. The research was
done by using the relevant keywords in the field of COVID-19 which was aimed specifically on domestic
violence during the pandemic. Moreover, local, and international publications, like media reports and
published reports were also used. Upon carrying out this research it could be stated that there was a rise in
the number of domestic violence cases in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. The literature
review was aimed at identifying the consequences of COVID-19 and why it triggered a spike in domestic
violence cases. The study concluded that the psychological impacts, and socio-economic state created as
the result of the lockdown was the main contributing factor which gives rise to substance abuse, depression,
which collectively lead to violence.
Keywords: COVID-19, Lockdown, Domestic Violence, Impacts, Causes, Fiji, Pacific