Santa Barbara Child Abuse Spikes Amid Coronavirus Lockdown
CALM Offers Services and Resources to Keep Kids Safe at Home
On Wednesday, March 25, police arrested a Santa Barbara man for “willful cruelty to a child.” On Thursday, March 26, a young Santa Maria mother was charged with alcohol offenses and child abuse. On Friday, March 27, a fight between a Goleta couple spilled onto their daughter.
As the coronavirus lockdown keeps families confined to their homes, where worries over money and anxiety about the future can explode, Santa Barbara authorities are seeing a spike in domestic violence. “For the most vulnerable people in our community, shelter-in-place is the same as putting them in a cage with a violent gorilla,” said District Attorney Joyce Dudley in a public statement.
Some saw it coming. “We anticipated this,” said Alana Walczak, the director of CALM, Child Abuse Listening Mediation. “We know that child abuse and domestic violence are directly connected to stress.” During the 2008 recession, Walczak explained, the leading cause of unnatural death in some children’s hospitals went from car accidents to abusive head trauma.
