The lockdown has made it more difficult for those enduring domestic abuse, be they adults or children, either to get help form social services or to leave home to escape violence, exacerbating a problem that has remained unsolved for decades.
In a similar vein, sexual assault continues to go largely unpunished; although some paedophiles have been brought to book in recent years, many remain at large, and the prosecution rates for rape are dismal, creating a climate of immunity for men to commit acts of sexual assault.
The key challenges seem to be how to gather greater evidence that will be deemed reliable in a court of law and to enable interventions by the police and social services even where individuals are too afraid to call for help themselves.
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