Trends in Family Violence Are Not Causally Associated with COVID-19 Stay-at-Home Orders: a Commentary on Piquero et al.
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Trends in Family Violence Are Not Causally Associated with COVID-19 Stay-at-Home Orders: a Commentary on Piquero et al. Jennifer M. Reingle Gonzalez 1 Katelyn K. Jetelina 2
& Rebecca
Molsberry 1,2 & Jonathan Maskaly 3 &
Received: 29 July 2020 / Accepted: 25 September 2020/ # Southern Criminal Justice Association 2020
Abstract COVID-19 has caused a wave of research publications in academic and pre-print outlets which have resulted in several high-profile retractions. While the breadth of emerging research has been instrumental in understanding and curbing the global pandemic in near real-time, unfortunately manuscripts with major methodological challenges have fallen through the cracks. In this perspective, we illustrate this issue in light of a recent manuscript by Piquero et al. (2020). In the study, a statistically significant association between stay-at-home orders and family violence was not detected; however, the authors widely disseminated a “12.5% increase in family violence” offenses to a variety of media outlets. This negligent dissemination of inaccurate research findings has important implications for policy and the virus mitigation efforts, which might urge policymakers to terminate stay-at-home orders in an effort to reduce family violence and other social risk factors. Changes may ultimately result in more COVID-related deaths as stay-at-home orders are prematurely and inappropriately lifted to prevent purported injuries in the home. Therefore, the widespread propagation of these claims in the absence of scientific evidence of an increase has great potential to cause harm. Keywords Dating violence . Family violence . Policy . COVID-19
* Jennifer M. Reingle Gonzalez [email protected]
1
Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute, Dallas, TX, USA
2
Department of Epidemiology, Human Genetics, and Environmental Sciences, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, School of Public Health, Dallas, TX, USA
3
Department of Criminal Justice, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND, USA
American Journal of Criminal Justice
The unprecedented nature of the COVID-19 pandemic has tasked researchers with describing COVID-19 spread, preventing transmission, finding treatment courses, and evaluating the impact on society and public behavior. Due to the rapid influx of scholarly articles processed by journals and a surge in pre-print articles, research on COVID-19 has swiftly been disseminated. In fewer than 5 months, Scopus has already indexed more than 12,000 publications (Haghani and Bliemer, 2020), with many journals still currently overwhelmed with submissions (Brainard, 2020). While the flood of information has provided scientists and the public with necessary information, a wave of retractions in major journals has begun to appear (Retraction Watch, 2020). When research findings are retracted—especially highly cited and broadly disseminated results—scientific credibility is compromised, and members of the public are often left confused. It is therefore incumbent on both authors and jour
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