Citation

Mawby R. Crime Prev. Community Safety 2020; 22(4): 305-312.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group -- Palgrave-Macmillan)

DOI

10.1057/s41300-020-00097-4

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

There has been a spate of research papers from sociologists, social and public policy specialists, educationalists and health care professionals, on the negative impact of COVID-19. However, of particular relevance to this journal is the relationship between the pandemic and crime. Personal movements have been constrained, particularly at the heart of the pandemic, due to either individual choice or government restrictions. This encouraged academics interested in situational influences on crime patterns to question the impact of changes in mobility on crime rates. For example, UCL (University College London) hosted an online symposium on Crime and COVID-19 on 16 July and has a webpage dedicated to the subject,Footnote 1 and criminologists across the world have been assessing changes in crime rates and patterns of offending.

The theoretical basis for much of this analysis is derived from routine activity theory (Cohen and Felson 1979), rational choice theory (Cromwell et al. 1991) and crime pattern theory (Brantingham and Brantingham 1995). While varying in their emphases, essentially these focus on opportunities: offenders' decisions to target specific property or persons, based on their knowledge and awareness of the target, and the availability and accessibility of an appropriate target.

Three aspects of the situation that make a crime more or less likely...

Language: en