As COVID-19 spreads across the nation, many are voicing alarm that sickness and social distancing will spark an epidemic of domestic violence. The alarm is merited. Social and economic stressors like job loss, discrimination, community dislocation and trauma correlate with increased domestic violence. The fact that families are cooped up together may make matters worse.

As domestic violence scholars and victims’ advocates, we are heartened that the media and public commentators have shifted from describing domestic violence solely as something individual criminals do to a phenomenon deeply connected with social marginality and economic precarity — conditions that will be exponentially aggravated by the virus.

However, we are concerned that having identified the potential for increased violence, the solution will be increased arrests and prosecutions. Police and prosecutors’ offices have assured the public that they are open for “business as usual” when it comes to domestic violence.

The pandemic has put a spotlight on the perils of the United States’ decades-long addiction to using criminal law as a primary solution to social problems.

The pandemic has put a spotlight on the perils of the United States’ decades-long addiction to using criminal law as a primary solution to social problems. Prisons are underfunded, overcrowded, understaffed and unsanitary. There is no social distancing behind bars.

COVID-19 is rapidly spreading in jails and prisons throughout the nation. Even police and prosecutors are warning that the combination of coronavirus and the carceral state is potentially explosive, portending a huge human rights, health and security crisis. Rikers Island doctor Rachel Bedard put it plainly: “The only meaningful public health intervention here is to depopulate the jails dramatically.” Recently the chief judge of New Jersey took the unprecedented step of ordering the release of over 1,000 county jail inmates.

But measures to mitigate the harm seem to apply only to “nonviolent crimes.” Although the majority of domestic violence cases are charged as misdemeanors, they are almost always classified as “violent.” Prosecutors and police have ensured the public that they will continue to take domestic violence cases seriously, meaning they will continue to arrest suspects, issue and enforce stay-away orders and seek detention.

As family violence spikes, so will these criminal measures. For many, this feels necessary. But the social science research suggests that criminalization is often ineffective and harmful to women. In the context of a pandemic, it’s also potentially deadly.

The consequences of a domestic violence arrest have always been dire, but now they include exposure to a fatal infectious disease.

The consequences of a domestic violence arrest have always been dire, but now they include exposure to a fatal infectious disease. Arrest “more often than not…initiates a judicial process which, experience tells us, has little chance of a productive outcome,” as one criminologist warned. It now also initiates a viral chain.

When officers make a domestic violence arrest, the viral spread begins, from the booking officers to the detaining authorities and court personnel. The arrestee, if imprisoned, is locked in an institutional setting where social distancing is impossible. While being held, the imprisoned person is unlikely to receive adequate health care.

Most domestic violence arrests are for misdemeanors, and many detainees will be released after exposure to reside with family and friends, and often with the victim — stay away order or not. Prison education organizer Amanda Klonsky recently admonished that coronavirus needs no genius escape plan: “People are constantly churning through jail and prison facilities, being ushered to court hearings, and then being released to their communities.”

Police and prosecutors should take steps to reduce the number of people caught in this cycle. Police should listen to victims when they ask them not to make arrests. Prosecutors and judges should not impose stay-away orders on unwilling parties.

Prosecutors and judges should stop presuming that all domestic violence cases must be excluded from coronavirus-responsive policies that require detention be imposed minimally, selectively and only when truly necessary.

Prosecutors and judges should stop presuming that all domestic violence cases must be excluded from coronavirus-responsive policies that require detention be imposed minimally, selectively and only when truly necessary.

Because of the perils of arrest and prosecution, only about half of victims of domestic violence report to law enforcement at all. In the current crisis, with domestic violence increasing, these victims need aid — aid that arrest and imprisonment can’t give.

Victims also need community support and assistance — the same mutual aid that people across the United States are providing to their neighbors. Check in on friends who may be experiencing violence and isolation. Provide food, medical supplies, and help with rent if you can. Material and emotional support can lower the tension within a home and prevent abuse. Direct victims in need to service providers like the National Domestic Violence Hotline and resources in your local community.

Domestic violence will surely increase during the pandemic. But turning to criminalization will often not stop and could even increase that violence.

Domestic violence will surely increase during the pandemic, because the virus has brought with it economic stress and trauma and has prevented victims from physically distancing themselves from abusive partners. But turning to criminalization will often not stop and could even increase that violence. It will also increase the spread of coronavirus, leaving victims and their families worse off.

The pandemic has laid bare the many risks of carceral responses to problems like domestic abuse. We can no longer blindly accept the mantra that arrest is always best.