Intimate Partner Violence in the COVID-19 Era: A Health, Psychological, Forensic and Legal Perspective.

This commentary aims to provide a multidisciplinary framework on intimate partner violence (IPV) during the COVID-19 pandemic (with a specific focus on the most predominant form of gender-based violence, i.e., male violence towards women), commenting on the multiple negative consequences of the pandemic on gender violence and providing elements of effective practice. We searched literature for reports/studies on the issue of IPV during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on health, psychological, forensic, and legal aspects. The combined effects of lockdowns, isolation at home with abusive partners, quarantine, and economic worries/loss of a job could significantly facilitate violence against women and, at the same time, diminish women's chances to seek for help, with a strong negative impact on their life. The continued offer of clinical, psychological, forensic, and legal services for survivors of violence, despite the modifications to the provision of these services due to the new needs related to the COVID-19 pandemic, appears of utmost importance. All actions to support survivors of IPV are expected to be multidisciplinary, including the involvement of social and/or legal services and health systems, and woman-centred. Implementing these measures in the COVID-19 era appears challenging but is of primary importance.

Legal scenarios in the coronavirus time: Medico legal implications in the aspects of governance.

Along with rising levels of the infection around the world, the state of emergency prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic has also been having a heavy legal impact. The situation is posing important criminal challenges, as well as an ocean of social and public health issues around the world. It has not only directly affected constitutionally-guaranteed rights and individual freedoms, but also brought to the fore certain types of criminal offence that had previously been of little practical importance, such as the crime of 'maliciously or unintentionally causing an epidemic'. Different countries and states have introduced policies to manage the emergency at different times and in different ways. The measures adopted have been the object of much criticism, also raising questions of constitutional legitimacy in countries like Italy. The present contribution begins with a brief outline of the different international scenarios. Then we examine some of the medicolegal aspects of criminal offences previously envisaged and newly introduced since the arrival of the pandemic. We suggest the need for a sort of 'code of public health laws for the time of coronavirus', that could also be applied to other public health emergencies, pandemic or otherwise. The idea is to give operators in the sector and the general population the opportunity to identify clear and simple rules to follow in the current complex global situation. We need a new, appropriate interpretation of the 'boundaries' of our individual rights in relation to the need to safeguard the wider community and its more vulnerable members.