Domestic Violence and the Holidays: What's Cooking?

With the approaching holiday season, questions may arise about how to appropriately respond to the food-related needs of survivors in shelter and how to manage excess food donations. This brief document offers guidance from the NRCDV Technical Assistance Team.

For the past few years, the NRCDV has released Technical Assistance Guidance to the field in preparation for the holidays, defined here as the time period beginning the week of Thanksgiving through New Year's Day. Research on the prevalence of domestic violence during the holidays continues to be limited and inconclusive. For example, a 2005 study found that police incident reports of domestic violence are higher than the normal daily average on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, with New Year's Day averaging 2.7 times more incidents of domestic violence than the normal daily average. On the other hand, information on the number of calls received by the National Domestic Violence Hotline (NDVH) for the past eight years indicates that the number of calls drops dramatically during the Holidays, including on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.