Google searches in the United States related to violence against women saw a sharp rise during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a study published in The Journal of General Psychology.
Google search queries like “how to control your woman” rose by 67 percent from 2019 to 165 million searches.
The phrase “I am going to kill her when she gets home” was searched 178 million times, an increase of 39 percent compared to 2019.
There has also been a concurrent rise in searches that indicate male violence is occurring.
Google searches for “he will kill me” increased by 84 percent in 2020 to 107 million.
The phrase “help me, he won’t leave” saw 1.22 billion Google searches, an increase of 95 percent from 2019.
“He beats me up all the time” had 320 million searches, an increase of 36 percent.
The study was titled as “Covid-19, suicide, and femicide: Rapid Research using Google search phrases.”
The study also shows a spike in searches related to suicide and suicidal thoughts.
“These indicators … signal feelings of powerlessness, vulnerability and hopelessness from hundreds of thousands of Americans—all signs of psychological stress and mental unwellness that can result in ideation, suicide attempts and completed suicides,” according to the study.
“I want to die” was Google searched 668 million times, “I don’t want to go on living” 236 million times, and 894 million searches for “my life is over.”
