Tick, Tock, Boom!

Abstract

This article offers a critical forecast on violent crime as the UK begins to emerge from the global Covid-19 pandemic. The article is structured into three thematic sections that separately address three key issues related to the issue of violence contemporarily. Firstly, the article places in context the rise in serious forms of violent crime across England and Wales that occurred in the years preceding the arrival of Covid-19. Secondly, it considers, briefly, the pandemic’s impact upon violence, specifically the effect of lockdown upon patterns of violence. Thirdly, and finally, the article provides a critical forecast, which draws together some of the points identified in the preceding two sections. This final section suggest that serious violence may become a more significant issue in the UK’s post-pandemic context of inequality, austerity legacy, the harms of lockdown to vulnerable groups, and the cost-of-living crisis.