Purpose: This chapter highlights the experiences of domestic violence survivors and service providers, namely firefighters and police, during the pandemic in Guatemala. It includes an overview of violence types seen and experienced during the pandemic, contributing factors to domestic violence, an overview of why individuals may or may not leave their abusers, and why they may or may not report abuses to the authorities. Policy recommendations for supporting victims in the future are provided.Methodology/Approach: A field-based approach along with snowball sampling techniques was utilized to contact and interview survivors, police, and firefighters. Using grounded theory, interview responses were then organized by research questions and coded into emergent themes.Findings: Emotional, psychological, and physical violence were all experienced during the pandemic. While typical, these experiences often started before the pandemic. However, they grew in intensity, as individuals experienced various forms of stress and negative emotions while being locked down in the same household together. Domestic violence was also vicarious, impacting the whole family. Most left their abusers once the lockdown was lifted; however, many stayed due to financial insecurities. Others stayed due to a fear of not being able to see their children anymore. Similar justifications were given for why individuals did not report abuse to the authorities. While a few simply mistrusted the police and believed the law was not on their side, this was not the primary reason for not reporting domestic violence. However, they did believe that current laws and policies needed to provide better services, as the law was thought to support their abuser more than them.Originality/Value: This study contributes to our knowledge of domestic violence during pandemics by expanding on previous research in Guatemala. It also highlights how various limitations and resources which are not addressed in non-pandemic times may result in exacerbating violence during future pandemics.
Purpose – This study explored how the pandemic shaped or shifted legacy news reporting about crime, focusing on Twitter posts as visual elements of the crossmedia landscape.Methodology/Approach – Drawing a purposive sample of tweets about crime and the pandemic posted from March 2020 to December 2021 by major TV news outlets, the qualitative media analysis (QMA) scrutinized how tweets constructed narratives about crime. The analysis considered images, text, and their juxtaposition within tweets and over time.Findings – This study found that news organizations partnered the pandemic and crime in the American discourse of fear. Tweets acted as crime news snapshots, which magnified a sense of instability and uncertainty. Tweets constructed a collective malaise that could contribute to users' sense of ontological insecurity.Originality/Value – The spectacle of crime churned through news organizations' tweets, dissociating crime from the complex social context of the pandemic. Attention to the liquidity of images and information in the crossmedia landscape revealed fluctuating social meanings and disorientation.
Purpose – Prison health is public health. Yet, efforts to protect against as well as slow the spread of COVID-19 are virtually impossible in prison settings where “what we know” may not match with policies. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, incarcerated people are uniquely at risk as correctional facilities are “super-spreader” sites for prisoners and staff alike. The purpose of this chapter is to explore the impact of COVID-19 in prisons along with the additional personal and social costs associated with the pandemic (e.g., lockdowns, limited visitation, etc.) that can also impact the health status of those “doing COVID time.”Methodology/Approach – This chapter examines the multifaceted impact of the COVID pandemic on those (in)directly impacted in correctional settings. It is not an empirical work.Originality/Value – This chapter provides insight into the often taken-for-granted impact of the COVID pandemic on those who live and work in prison settings. The recommendations may be of interest to those who “do the time,” those who work in such settings, and social justice advocates and others involved in policy-making.
Purpose – This chapter seeks to understand what occurred with five different types of crime among eight retail sectors during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020–2021 to allow retailers to respond to crime, risk, and loss.Methodology/Approach – Data as reported by police in seven major US cities during the first six months of 2019, 2020, and 2021 were analyzed from a Routine Activities perspective.Findings – The study results show that crime varied by type and location during COVID-19.Originality/Value – This analysis provides the first examination of crime across several types and eight retail sectors.
Purpose – This chapter examines how the response to the pandemic will have an impact for many years on rule of law mechanisms and human rights within Hungary.Methodology/Approach – The arguments put forward in this chapter are supported by analysis of key legislation both domestic and international concentrating on how the concept of rule of law has been redefined. This analysis is conducted by focusing on the Hungarian legislation, Fundamental Law, and key sources engaging in the analysis of the effects that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on reshaping the legal landscape.Findings – In the unprecedented times of a global pandemic it is important to reflect on how the Governments of the world responded to the immediate danger and what ramifications those changes will have as the pandemic unfolds over the coming years. This raises questions regarding the European political landscape and how the cause of the rule of law can be furthered. This chapter argues that the rule of law project of the European Union (EU) as set out in Article 2 of the Treaty of the European Union (TEU) has been circumvented by several rogue states. The European parliament now is finding new ways to engage with and curtail “rogue” Member States which, according to them, step out of line.Originality/Value – The current research contributes to the ongoing dialogue about the tension that the COVID-19 pandemic had on global legal frameworks. Of particular interest is how the EU and its institutions are uniquely placed to act as an external guarantor of the rule of law. However, this relationship has been tested by Member States, in particular Hungary, with its use of emergency measures. This chapter compliments the body of academic work by analyzing how Hungary has reached the position it is in today and what could be done to bring it back within the ethos of Article 2’s common values of the Member States.
Purpose – This chapter discusses the utility of engaging in participatory action research (PAR) methodologies to investigate prison climates within correctional settings. In doing so, facilitators and barriers accompanying this research approach are highlighted.Methodology/Approach – PAR methodologies were adopted to investigate living and working conditions within a Mid-Atlantic prison. In line with this approach, members of the incarcerated population and staff within the institution were selected to be members of the research team.Findings – Following the PAR framework to studying prison climates, several barriers and facilitators in conducting this research were identified and are presented to inform continued efforts investigating prison conditions and culture.Originality/Value – Overall, a limited understanding of prison conditions, culture, and quality of life within correctional institutions exists. Moreover, a lack of attention has been devoted to improving working and living conditions behind the prison walls. Therefore, efforts to improve the prison environment are limited due to a lack of data about prison conditions and quality of life within these settings. PAR methodologies provide an important framework for addressing these gaps.
Purpose – This chapter aims to analyze the pandemic situation in a legal and political point of view, to find what measures have been adopted by States to face the spread of the contagion, and whether those measures have been determinant in the redefinition of democracy. Emergency dispositions were enacted when an “emergency state” was declared, containing a series of dangerous elements for the correct application of the rule of law.Methodology/Approach – The approach considers a “pluralistic methodology” that refers to a comparative law study, but also uses the approach of political science, history of institutions, and sociology. From this point of view, this chapter regards similarities and differences, between two or more legal systems, as coincidences or dissonances, comparing cases in a diachronic and synchronic way at the same time to evidence what is the democratic erosion.Findings – This chapter doesn’t want to provide a mere chronicle of what happened during the COVID-19 situation, but it finds that in some peculiar cases emergency affected a degeneration of democratic institutions, and an acceptance of a new model of state, with hypertrophic executives, weak legislative bodies, not equilibrated balance of fundamental rights, and a rise of technocracy.Originality/Value – Based on other studies focused on state-by-state oversights during the pandemic, our theory intends to enlighten the COVID-19 as a “black swan” in the international political and legal scenario, or a sort of turning point in an inevitable and unstoppable transformation of the state model that appears to aspire to a return of some autocratic attitudes.
Purpose: The evidence regarding the effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on domestic violence is mixed. Studies using hotline call services identify an increase on domestic violence, while studies using police reports find a decrease. One limitation is that most of these studies came from diverse regions using different types of data sources. The purpose of this study is to use two separate data sources to study this question in the same region, and to contribute to the discussion for potential mechanisms that explain this mixed evidence.Methodology: This study estimates the effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on domestic violence in Mexico City. The authors use two separate data sources: hotline calls and official police reports. Our empirically strategy is based on a difference-in-differences methodology and an event-study design.Findings: As a consequence of the COVID-19 lockdown, hotline calls for psychological domestic violence increase by 17%, while police reports of domestic violence decrease by 22%. To reconcile these discrepancies between hotline calls and police reports, the authors consider several potential mechanisms. The authors find suggestive evidence that the increase in psychological domestic violence is related to financial stress. Further, the results of this study indicate that the reduction in police reports is related to women facing more barriers to report their abusive intimate partners during the lockdown.Value: These results confirm that the variation observed in the existing literature is related to the type of data being used. The mixed evidence suggests that more women suffer from psychological domestic violence as captured by hotline calls, while women encounter more barriers to report their abusive husbands to the police as captured by the official police reports.
Purpose: For contemporary policing, the police–public communication process is one of the most essential elements of law enforcement management. The promotion of police–public relations, police integrity, and police accountability all depend upon effective communication. While ever a challenge for law enforcement agencies, the coming of the COVID-19 pandemic changed substantially the character of both mediated and interpersonal communication between the police and those policed as of 2020.Methodology/Approach: Building upon the concept of electronic community-oriented policing (E-COP), this chapter proposes an expanded theoretical model of police–public online communication during a time in which in-person contacts are constrained and various forms of mediated communication assume major importance.Findings: Using a sample of COVID-related police Facebook posts collected between February 1 and May 31, 2020, this chapter illustrates how the expanded E-COP model is helpful in orchestrating an effective police response to a major public health emergency. It also advances the argument that police–public online communication will be not only become widely used during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but will likely become routinized.Originality/Value: The proposed model also provides practical suggestions for law enforcement agency leaders who endeavor to advance the goals of community-oriented and guardianship-directed policing. Some likely barriers to more effective use of social media are singled out for special attention.
Purpose: This chapter provides an overview of the results so far within the Stay Home, Stay Safe research project in the Netherlands. The project started in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and is aimed at examining short- and long-term consequences of restrictions taken to control the spread of the COVID-19 virus on domestic violence (DV). Restrictions may have resulted in social isolation and familial stress, which in turn may have led to an increase in DV. The main research question is whether, and if so which types of, DV increased during periods of COVID-19 restrictions.Methodology/approach: This project used national data on DV before (2019) and during the different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2022), from different sources (i.e., official registered reports, advices as well as file data of DV agencies). Trends in the prevalence, nature, and the role of reporters of DV before the pandemic are compared to trends during the pandemic.Findings: Trends of DV registrations show no differences in the prevalence before and during different phases of the pandemic. The number of advice requests at the reporting agencies seem to have increased. However, this finding cannot be unambiguously subscribed to pandemic-specific circumstances, because this upward trend already consistently started in 2019. A shift was observed from professional reporters toward relatively more non-professional reporters, mostly neighbors.Originality/Value: In contrast to previously published research, the current project uses data from multiple sources and examines information not only on trends in prevalence of DV records, but also on the type of reporter, and the nature of the violence.
Purpose – The study intends to determine the impact of the lockdowns during the COVID-19 on various categories of crime. It examines the issue of crime in Israel focusing on the crime patterns that evolve separately among Jews and Arabs.Methodology/Approach – Using statistical data received from the Israeli police, the authors examined crime rates during the lockdown periods, compared to the same period three years before.Findings – The findings in this study are in line with other studies, meaning that the impact of lockdowns on crime during the pandemic, especially on violence and domestic violence, is not conclusive. As far as severe violence is concerned, in the first lockdown the impact was more pronounced. However, the subsequent lockdowns produced less dramatic outcomes. A close examination of the data implies that during the lockdowns, the oscillations of violence rates were more noticeable among the Arab population.Originality/Value – The effect of the lockdowns corroborated much of the findings in previous studies done in other countries. The findings follow the theory of routine activity and shaw that when life returned to normal also the crime patters returned to the old patterns. Furthermore, it seems that many subsequent lockdowns lose their effectiveness as people find ways to avoid some of the restrictions. In addition, also when some effect was noticed, it certainly is not very dramatic.
Purpose: The chapter aims to analyze the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on levels of domestic abuse at the global level; examine the responses of international and regional human rights bodies; and identify lessons which can be learnt with regard to responding to domestic abuse in a post-pandemic context.Methodology/Approach: The chapter discusses the increase in rates of domestic abuse since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and proceeds to examine this form of abuse as an issue for international human rights law. The chapter then focuses on the responses of international and regional human rights bodies to the increased levels of domestic abuse in the context of the pandemic.Findings: There is a danger of viewing the recent issues surrounding domestic abuse as simply being caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, in reality the pandemic has served to expose and exacerbate pre-existing difficulties with the responses of States to this form of abuse.Originality/value: The chapter adds to the literature on domestic abuse as a human rights issue by focusing on the specific context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Purpose – This chapter gives an overview of the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on institutional corrections in the United States and the responses correctional institutions have taken to lessen those impacts.Methodology/Approach – A review of the extant literature was conducted to gather information on COVID-19 and the institutional corrections systems within the United States.Findings – The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on correctional institutions within the United States were more pronounced due to the demographic characteristics of inmates and facility challenges. Responses to outbreaks or potential outbreaks in jails and prisons in the United States included screening measures, restricted inmate movement and visitation, and decarceration efforts.Originality/Value – This chapter builds upon literature by discussing the challenges posed to correctional institutions in the United States in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and summarizing the measures taken to reduce the impact of COVID-19 on inmates, institutional staff, and community members alike.
Purpose – We investigate the impact of overlapping crises of COVID-19 and the George Floyd protests on one major US police department, focusing on staffing and officer proactivity.Methodology/Approach – The study investigates the impact of the two crises on operational capacity. Using Bayesian interrupted time-series analysis, the authors investigate if officer proactivity levels were adversely impacted in the short and long terms.Findings – A statewide stay-at-home order (SAHO) was associated with a sharp decline in proactive contacts, but that effect dissipated quickly. However, the Floyd protests were associated with a sharp decline in proactivity, which persisted throughout the study period.Originality/Value – The findings of this study contribute to ongoing research agendas that seek to understand the impact of dual, overlapping crises on US police departments and the communities they serve. The authors demonstrate a methodological approach capable of disentangling both crises’ effects on police activity levels.
Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadian jurisdictions have varied in terms of their reporting of COVID-19 cases amongst prisoners and prison staff. By engaging with the literature focused on the policing of criminological knowledge and prison opacity, this paper examines how multiple approaches to newsmaking criminology in the form of blog posts, op-ed writing, the publishing of reports, and expert commentary can challenge state secrecy in ways that help generate proactive disclosure of additional information regarding the impact and management of the coronavirus behind prison walls. We explore how "flooding the zone" of public debates on pandemic management with the limited and incomplete data made available by authorities works as a knowledge mobilization and research strategy to help reveal previously unpublished information critical to better understanding prison policy, practice and outcomes. In so doing, we highlight the value of newsmaking criminology not only as a means of communicating and mobilizing criminological knowledge, but also of generating it in the service of emancipatory research and advocacy.
