Integrating Theoretical Perspectives to Understand Sex and Gender-Based Violence Against Women and Children During COVID-19: Implications for Botswana

The COVID-19 pandemic brought about a period of marked adversity. In addition to widespread morbidity and mortality, the pandemic resulted in a rise in intimate partner violence (IPV), domestic violence (DV), and child maltreatment (CM), collectively referred to as sex and gender-based violence [SGBV] in this paper. Global and in-house government measures were implemented to tackle these problems associated with COVID-19. The pandemic created new challenges for providing health and social welfare services during times of crisis. The paper will use mechanisms, processes, and psychological pathways to explain the relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic and SGBV. Government-induced COVID-19 control measures have exacerbated socioeconomic hardship and marginalisation, increasing SGBV rates due to insufficient response efforts. We use stress theory and the life course model to guide the development of a hypothetical conceptual foundation. The paper finally synthesises and anchors these perspectives to create a framework for future interventions.