全球家暴激增：疫情中的“亲密恐怖主义”

A New Covid-19 Crisis: Domestic Abuse Rises Worldwide

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Add another public health crisis to the toll of the new coronavirus: Mounting data suggests that domestic abuse is acting like an opportunistic infection, flourishing in the conditions created by the pandemic.

另一场公共健康危机也该归为新型疫情造成的损失：越来越多的数据表明，家庭暴力如同一种伺机性感染，正在大流行造成的环境中迅速蔓延。

There was every reason to believe that the restrictions imposed to keep the virus from spreading would have such an effect, said Marianne Hester, a Bristol University sociologist who studies abusive relationships. Domestic violence goes up whenever families spend more time together, such as the Christmas and summer vacations, she said.

布里斯托尔大学(Bristol University)研究虐待关系的社会学家玛丽安·赫斯特(Marianne Hester)说，完全有理由相信，为防止病毒传播而实施的限制措施会产生这样的效果。她指出，每当家庭成员在一起的时间变多，比如圣诞节和暑假时，家暴就一定会增加。

Now, with families in lockdown worldwide, hotlines are lighting up with abuse reports, leaving governments trying to address a crisis that experts say they should have seen coming.

现在，全世界的家庭都陷入了封锁，报告家暴的热线电话连连响起，让各国政府不得不努力应对一场专家认为本应预见到的危机。

The United Nations called on Sunday for urgent action to combat the worldwide surge in domestic violence. “I urge all governments to put women’s safety first as they respond to the pandemic,” Secretary General António Guterres wrote on Twitter.

联合国周日呼吁采取紧急措施，打击世界范围内激增的家暴行为。“我敦促各国政府在应对大流行的同时，把女性的安全放在首位，”秘书长安东尼奥·古特雷斯(António Guterres)在Twitter上写道。

But governments largely failed to prepare for the way the new public health measures would create opportunities for abusers to terrorize their victims. Now, many are scrambling to offer services to those at risk.

但是，各国政府基本没有准备好应对新的公共卫生措施将会带来的影响，即一个为施虐者恐吓受害者制造机会的环境。现在，他们中的许多正在仓促行动，为那些身处险境的人提供救助。

But, as with the response to the virus itself, the delays mean that irreparable harm may already have occurred.

然而，正如对病毒本身的应对一样，这种延误意味着，无法挽回的伤害可能已经发生。

Lockdown and ‘Intimate Terrorism’

封锁和“亲密恐怖主义”

On March 1, while Lele was holding her 11-month-old daughter, her husband began to beat her with a high chair. She is not sure how many times he hit her. Eventually, she says, one of her legs lost feeling and she fell to the ground, still holding the baby in her arms.

3月1日，当乐乐还抱着她11个月大的女儿时，丈夫开始用一把高脚椅殴打她。她不确定他打了她多少下。她说，最终她的一只脚失去知觉，她倒在地上，但手里仍然抱着孩子。

A photograph she took after the incident shows the high chair lying on the floor in pieces, two of its metal legs snapped off — evidence of the force with which her husband wielded it against her. Another image documents Lele’s injuries: Nearly every inch of her lower legs was covered in bruises, a huge hematoma blooming on her left calf.

她在事后拍下的一张照片显示，那把高脚椅四分五裂地散落在地上，两条金属腿都断了——这正是她丈夫用力将这把椅子挥向她的证据。另一张照片记录下了乐乐的伤痕：她小腿布满了淤青，左腿腿肚子上出现了一块巨大的血肿。

Lele — her full name is not being used for her safety — said that her husband had abused her throughout their six-year relationship, but that the Covid-19 outbreak made things far worse.

在六年的相处中，乐乐——为安全考虑未使用其全名——说丈夫一直虐待她，但是疫情暴发使情况变得更糟。

“During the epidemic, we were unable to go outside, and our conflicts just grew bigger and bigger and more and more frequent,” she said. “Everything was exposed.”

“疫情期间我们不能出门，我们之间的冲突越来越大，越来越频繁，”她说。“一切都暴露出来。”

As quarantines take effect around the world, that kind of “intimate terrorism” — a term many experts prefer for domestic violence — is flourishing.

随着隔离措施在世界各地生效，这种“亲密恐怖主义”——许多专家更喜欢用这个词来形容家庭暴力——正在大行其道。

In Spain, the emergency number for domestic violence received 18 percent more calls in the first two weeks of lockdown than in the same period a month earlier.

在西班牙，家庭暴力的紧急求助号码在封锁前两周接到的电话，比一个月前同期多了18%。

“We’ve been getting some very distressing calls, showing us clearly just how intense psychological as well as physical mistreatment can get when people are kept 24 hours a day together within a reduced space,” said Ana Bella, who set up a foundation to help other women after surviving domestic violence herself.

“我们接到一些非常痛苦的电话，清楚地向我们表明，当人们一天24小时被关在同一个狭小的空间里，会发生怎样的心理和身体虐待，”安娜·贝拉(Ana Bella)说，她在摆脱家庭暴力之后成立了一个基金会来帮助其他女性。

On Thursday, the French police reported a nationwide spike of about 30 percent in domestic violence. Christophe Castaner, the French interior minister, said he had asked officers to be on the lookout for abuse.

周四，法国警方报告说，全国范围内的家庭暴力上升了大约30%。法国内政部长克里斯托夫·卡斯塔内(Christophe Castaner)表示，他已要求官员们注意虐待行为。

“The risk increases due to confinement,” he said in an interview on French television.

“禁足会增加风险，”他在接受法国电视台采访时表示。

No Escape

无处可逃

In Spain, with the help of women’s associations, The New York Times contacted women stuck at home with an abusive husband or partner and conducted interviews over WhatsApp.

在西班牙，《纽约时报》在一些女性协会帮助之下联系了一些困在家中、遭受丈夫或伴侣虐待的女性，并通过WhatsApp进行了采访。

One of them, Ana — who asked that her full name be withheld — shares an apartment with her partner, and says he has been regularly abusing her. He insists on total surveillance at all times. If she tries to lock herself in a room, he kicks the door until she opens it.

其中，安娜——她要求隐去自己的全名——和伴侣同住一间公寓，她说对方经常虐待自己。他始终坚持对她进行全天候的全面监视。如果她把自己锁在一个房间里，他就会踢门，直到她把门打开。

“I can’t even have privacy in the bathroom — and now I have to endure this in a lockdown,” she wrote in a message sent late at night, to hide the communication from her husband.

“我甚至在卫生间里都不能有隐私——现在我不得不在禁闭中忍受这一切，”她写道，为了不让丈夫知道，她在深夜发来信息。

Judith Lewis Herman, a renowned trauma expert at Harvard University Medical School, has found that the coercive methods domestic abusers use to control their partners and children “bear an uncanny resemblance” to those kidnappers use to control hostages and repressive regimes use to break the will of political prisoners.

哈佛大学医学院(Harvard University Medical School)著名创伤专家朱迪斯·刘易斯·赫尔曼(Judith Lewis Herman)发现，家庭中的施虐者用来控制伴侣和孩子的胁迫手段，与绑架者用来控制人质、专制政权用来摧毁政治犯意志的手段“惊人地相似”。

“The methods which enable one human being to control another are remarkably consistent,” she wrote in a widely cited 1992 journal article. “While perpetrators of organized political or sexual exploitation may instruct each other in coercive methods, perpetrators of domestic abuse appear to reinvent them.”

“让一个人能够去控制另一个人的方法，是大同小异的，”她在1992年一篇被广泛引用的期刊文章中写道：“有组织的政治或性剥削施害者在胁迫手段方面可能有共通之处，而家庭暴力的施害者似乎会改造这些手段。”

In addition to physical violence, which is not present in every abusive relationship, common tools of abuse include isolation from friends, family and employment; constant surveillance; strict, detailed rules for behavior; and restrictions on access to such basic necessities as food, clothing and sanitary facilities.

除了在每一种虐待关系中都存在的身体暴力之外，常见的虐待手段还包括令受害者与朋友、家人和工作隔绝；持续的监视；严格、详细的行为规则；对食品、服装、卫生等基本生活必需品实行限制。

Home isolation, however vital to the fight against the pandemic, is giving still more power to the abuser, Dr. Hester said. “If suddenly people have got to be at home,” she said, “that gives him an opportunity, suddenly, to call the shots around that. To say what she should be doing or shouldn’t.”

赫斯特说，尽管家庭隔离对抗击大流行至关重要，但却极大助长了施虐者。“如果突然之间，人们必须待在家里，”她说，“那就给了他一个机会，突然之间，他就可以在家里发号施令，说她应该做什么，不应该做什么。”

The isolation has also shattered support networks, making it far more difficult for victims to get help or escape.

这种孤立也破坏了支持网络，使受害者更难以获得帮助或逃脱。

Fragile resources, overwhelmed

薄弱的资源，被压垮的感觉

After her husband attacked her with the high chair, Lele limped to the next room and called the police. When they arrived, however, they only documented the attack, then took no further action.

被丈夫用高脚椅殴打后，乐乐一瘸一拐地走到隔壁房间报了警。然而，警察到达后只是记录了袭击行为，没有采取进一步的行动。

Next, she hired a lawyer and filed for divorce — only to find that the epidemic had cut off that avenue of escape, too. Her divorce proceeding was postponed until April. She is still waiting for the court’s decision.

接着，她聘请了一名律师，提出离婚——结果却发现这条退路也被疫情切断。她的离婚诉讼被推迟到四月。她还在等待法院的判决。

And finding a new home amid the outbreak proved difficult, forcing Lele and her daughter to continue to live with their abuser for weeks.

况且，事实证明要在疫情期间找到新家是很困难的，这迫使乐乐和女儿与她们的施虐者一起生活了几个星期。

It is a pattern playing out around the world.

同样的事在世界各地都在上演。

Institutions that are supposed to protect women from domestic violence, many weak and underfunded to begin with, are now straining to respond to the increased demand.

本来应该保护妇女免受家暴侵害的机构，本就薄弱且资金不足，现在正竭力应对不断增长的求助。

In Europe, one country after another seems to have followed the same grim path: First, governments impose lockdowns without making sufficient provisions for domestic abuse victims. About 10 days later, distress calls spike, setting off a public outcry. Only then do the governments scramble to improvise solutions.

在欧洲，一个接一个国家走上同一条严峻的道路：首先，政府实行封锁时，没有为家暴受害者提供足够的支持。大约10天后，求救电话激增，引发了公众的强烈抗议。直到那时，政府才会手忙脚乱地制定解决方案。

Italy was first.

首先是意大利。

Its lockdown began in early March. Soon after that, domestic violence reports began to rise, but there was nowhere for newly desperate women to go. Shelters could not take them because the risk of infection was too great.

该国的封锁从3月初开始。此后不久，家暴报道开始增多，但是这些陷入绝境的女性无处可去。由于传染病的风险太大，庇护所也无法将她们带走。

So the government said local authorities could requisition hotel rooms to serve as makeshift shelters where victims could quarantine safely.

因此，政府表示，地方当局可以征用旅馆房间作为临时庇护所，让受害者可以安全地隔离。

Spain announced its lockdown on March 14; France’s began three days later. About two weeks later, with abuse reports soaring, officials there announced that they, too, planned to turn vacant hotel rooms into shelters, among other emergency efforts.

西班牙于3月14日宣布封锁；法国则在三天后开始。大约两周后，随着虐待报告的飙升，那里的官员也宣布，除了其他紧急措施以外，他们计划将空置的旅馆房间改成庇护所。

Eventually, the lockdowns will end. But as the confinement drags on, the danger seems likely to intensify. Studies show that abusers are more likely to murder their partners and others in the wake of personal crises, including lost jobs or major financial setbacks.

封锁最终会结束。但是随着隔离的继续，危险似乎可能加剧。研究表明，在发生个人危机——包括失业或重大财务损失——之后，施虐者更有可能谋杀其伴侣和他人。

With Covid-19 ravaging the economy, such crises are set to become much more frequent.

随着Covid-19毁坏了经济，此类危机只会变得更加频繁。

作者：Amanda Taub

来源：纽约时报中文网 2020年4月8日

翻译：晋其角、Chen Huayizi、邓妍