ABSTRACT
The stay-at-home restrictions to control the spread of COVID-19 led to unparalleled sudden change in daily life, but it is unclear how they affected urban crime globally. We collected data on daily counts of crime in 27 cities across 23 countries in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. We conducted interrupted time series analyses to assess the impact of stay-at-home restrictions on different types of crime in each city. Our findings show that the stay-at-home policies were associated with a considerable drop in urban crime, but with substantial variation across cities and types of crime. Meta-regression results showed that more stringent restrictions over movement in public space were predictive of larger declines in crime.
Subject(s)
COVID-19/epidemiology , Crime/trends , Physical Distancing , Quarantine/trends , Europe , Humans , Middle East , Public Health/statistics & numerical data , United StatesABSTRACT
The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has impacted every economic and social sector across the globe, including higher education in South Africa. Every student and staff member at a higher education institution will have been affected in some way and to varying degrees;not one person will emerge from this unscathed. It is impossible to predict every short- and long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, but we will experience the aftershocks for a long time to come. Here, Hedding et al discuss some of these impacts, ranging from undergraduate level to large research projects, and offer suggestions on how to mitigate some of the damage.