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.

The famous R.E.M. song laments 'It's the end of the world as we know it, I had some time alone, I feel fine…'. Many South Africans would agree that COVID-19 signals the end of the world (or business) as we know it, and through the lockdown we have certainly had some time alone. But contrary to the lyrics, all may not be fine, especially for South Africa's scientific community.

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Little is known about spatial and temporal variations of violent crime in South Africa. This article addresses this gap by investigating the seasonality of assault at a neighborhood level in the city of Tshwane. The authors first investigate whether assault is seasonal, and then examine the association between seasonal levels of assault and area measures of social deprivation for urban neighborhoods in Tshwane. Similar to previous international res earch, the authors found that assault is seasonal, with higher incidences of assault in summer. Deprived neighborhoods exhibited higher rates of assault than more affluent neighborhoods. Assault levels in urban neighborhoods were found to be socially stratified and spatially patterned regardless of the season of the year. More deprived neighborhoods had higher assault rates in summer, whereas in winter, assault rates were more equably split over neighborhoods ranging from high to low deprivation. More affluent neigh borhoods typically exhibited lower assault rates in summer.

outlet density have also stratified alcohol outlets by licence type (i.e. on-site and off-site). 12,15,17,24,27 For example, Gruenewald and colleagues 12 examined the influence of alcohol consumption at bars, restaurants and at the homes of drinkers and their friends on drinking and driving rates; while Treno and colleagues examined how both on-premise alcohol establishments such as bars and restaurants and off-premise establishments such as liquor and grocery stores affected individuals' self-reported injuries. 24 Other work has examined whether higher alcohol outlet densities influence health outcomes such as suicide rates, 28 sexually transmitted diseases, 25 motor vehicle accidents 20 and pedestrian injury collisions. 29 Almost without exception, the increased availability of alcohol using various measures of alcohol outlet density is associated with an increase in alcohol-related harm such as crime or adverse health outcomes.A number of studies have emerged from NZ investigating the relationship between the density of alcohol outlets, and alcohol consumption and related harms. One study examined the relationship between physical, socio-economic and social environments and alcohol consumption patterns of drinkers aged 12-17 years. 30 Using multilevel modelling, they found alcohol outlet density in Auckland to be associated with greater amounts of alcohol consumption among teenage drinkers, as was neighbourhood deprivation. A cross-sectional study found positive associations between alcohol outlet density and individual drinking and related problems across six university campuses throughout NZ, and these associations remained after they controlled for various demographic variables and pre-university drinking. 31 One recent study found statistically significant associations between the density of off-licences, bars and clubs and the prevalence of binge drinking.32 After controlling for demographic and socio-economic variables, the association between binge drinking and off-licences remained. The authors reported "a 4% increase in binge drinking associated with each extra off-licence within 1 km of home". 32 Other studies relating access to alcohol outlets and neighbourhood deprivation have found greater access to alcohol outlets in more socially deprived neighbourhoods. 33,34 Studies examining the relationship between alcohol outlet density and injury and criminal offending in NZ are less forthcoming, with only two previous ecological studies known. One investigated the association between single-vehicle night-time motor vehicle accidents and alcohol outlet density in Auckland. 35 It found positive and significant associations between restaurant and club density and vehicular accidents in certain District Health Boards in the city. The other study found that off-licence alcohol outlet density was significantly associated with higher levels of anti-social behaviour, drug and alcohol offences, family violence, and motor vehicle accidents in Manukau City, while on-licence densities of certain types of outlets suc...