The Effect of COVID-19 on Domestic Violence and Assaults

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to examine the effect of COVID-19 on four outcomes including calls for service for domestic violence, calls for service for assaults, arrests for domestic violence, and arrests for assaults in Burlington, Vermont. The data for each outcome collected over the time periods January 2012 through May 2021 were obtained from the Burlington Police Department website and then a monthly time-series data set were created. The analyses including an independent samples t-test, a Poisson regression test, and a monthly interrupted time-series analyses (ITSA) were employed to test the effects of COVID-19 on the previously mentioned outcomes. The results of the ITSA showed that in the first month following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, domestic violence calls statistically significantly increased, but no statistically significant change was observed in domestic violence arrests, while assault calls and assault arrests statistically significantly decreased. In addition, during COVID-19, there was a statistically significant decreasing trend in domestic violence calls and domestic violence arrests, while there was no statistically significant change in the trends of assault calls and assault arrests. The results suggest that COVID-19 had an immediate as well as a persistent effect on the numbers of domestic violence and assaults. The results and limitations of this study were also discussed.

The impact of COVID-19 on police officer activities

“…Initial research on the impact of George Floyd's death has led to different conclusions. Demir and Park (2021) found that Black Lives Matter protests resulting from George Floyd's death did not lead to a change in assault CFS in Burlington, Vermont. On the other hand, there was a significant increase in reported firearm incidents after Floyd's death in Minneapolis, Minnesota, but not in two Midwestern cities used as comparison sites ( Boehme, Kaminski, & Nolan, 2022 ).…”

“…Domestic violence calls have also received significant empirical attention since the emergence of COVID-19. Much of the prior research suggests an increase in domestic violence CFS or reported incidents at the beginning of the pandemic ( Demir & Park, 2021 ; Leslie & Wilson, 2020 ; Miller et al, 2021 ; Nix & Richards, 2021 ; Piquero et al, 2020 ) with some support for overall increases throughout most of 2020 when compared to previous years ( Richards, Nix, Mourtgos, & Adams, 2021 ). As stay at home orders were lifted, some research has also observed subsequent declines in domestic violence CFS after initial increases ( Nix & Richards, 2021 ).…”

“…This study examines how these changes have not only impacted the public demand for police services and the types of CFS officers received, but also the proactive activities officers engaged in as their interactions with the public were altered. Recent research has also examined the impact of COVID-19 on CFS using a routine activity theoretical framework (see Dai et al, 2021 ; Demir & Park, 2021 ; Hodgkinson & Andresen, 2020 ; Nix & Richards, 2021 ; White et al, 2022 ).…”

“…Two areas of police work that have received attention in relation to the pandemic are calls for service (CFS) and proactive police activities. Several studies have examined changes to CFS patterns either for specific call types ( Demir & Park, 2021 ; Koziarski, 2021 ; Lersch, 2020 ; Miller, Segal, & Spencer, 2021 ; Nix & Richards, 2021 ) or more generally across multiple call types and/or jurisdictions ( Ashby, 2020 ; Dai, Xia, & Han, 2021 ; Mohler et al, 2020 ; White, Orosco, & Terpstra, 2022 ). Collectively, the results indicate that CFS trends have not been uniform, with variation observed between cities or call type (e.g., Ashby, 2020 ).…”

The unexpected consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on maritime crime: Evidence from Indonesia and Nigeria

“…Unlike crime on land, which mainly decreased around the world, piracy does not have the same opportunity structures. Many initial studies on the relationship between COVID-19 and crime on land find that the pandemic tended to decrease illicit activity (for instance, see Demir and Park, 2022; Ejrnæs and Scherg, 2022; Estévez-Soto, 2021; Payne, Morgan, and Piquero, 2020).…”