Spatial patterns of crime during COVID-19 pandemic in Czechia: ex-post analysis of natural experiment

• In Event: WG-PLACE 6: Neighbourhoods and Crime

Abstract

The coronavirus restrictions on society present an unprecedented and unique opportunity to better understand the connections between crime, society and space. The population spent far more time at the places of residence and far less time at the places of work and consumption. Daily routines of residents have changed, number of people in places has changed, and economic situation has changed. These rapid changes in a society could both limit and create new opportunities for crime to occur. However, did this ‘natural experiment’ led to a novel understanding of crime patterns?
In general, crime levels tended to drop significantly with the introduction of anti-pandemic measures. Crime related to public space decreased, especially thefts committed from persons. Crime related to cyberspace has increased, which is related to the shift of many human activities to the online space. Later on, after a mitigation or a cancellation of lock-downs, crime levels returned relatively quickly to the previous ‘normal’ level. The key outcome of the covid-19 pandemic seems to be an acceleration of some already existing trends in the development of crime.
This contribution aims to summarize the lesson learned from COVID-19 lock-downs on spatial patterns of crime by analysis of crime open data for Czechia from 2017 to 2023. Local specific features as well as international similarities will be highlighted.

Authors

• Martin Šimon, Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences

• Jana Jíchová, Charles University, Faculty of Science