"Pandemic, Social Unrest, & Crime in U.S. Cities"

On September 21, 2020, Dr. Richard Rosenfeld, Curator's Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, presented as part of our Lunch & Learn webinar series.

A study of weekly crime rates in 27 large cities between January 2017 and June 2020 disclosed significant downturns in residential burglary, larceny, and drug offense rates from March through June of 2020 (Rosenfeld and Lopez 2020). These declines were likely associated with the stay-at-home orders (residential burglary), business closings (larceny), and reduced street and police activity (drug offenses) in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. By contrast, nonresidential burglary spiked during a single week in late May and early June of 2020 and just as abruptly returned to normal levels the following week. The brief rise in nonresidential burglary coincided with sporadic breaking-and-entering and looting during the first week of mass protests against police violence. Homicide and aggravated assault rates also rose beginning in late May and continuing through the end of June. These increases were significantly larger than during the same period in previous years and coincided with the social unrest over police violence. Possible explanations for the recent increases in violence and strategies to address both the crime rise proposed reforms in policing were discussed.

The conversation and Q&A portions of the session further focused on what this research means for youth and youth justice.