Overview
I am tryin to gather more data for my dissertation. using the template I need some of these charts created, I will need the word and excel showing where the data came from Types to Capture
- Homicide/Murder and Shootings: These are critical as many studies found that while most crimes decreased, homicides and shootings often remain stable or increased, possibly due to gang activity or situational factors less impacted by general mobility changes.
- Domestic Violence/Assault (Family Violence): This is a crucial area of study, as reports from some sources indicated an increase in domestic incidents due to confinement and heightened stress, even if police-reported data was complicated by underreporting issues where victims were trapped with abusers.
- Aggravated Assault/Serious Assault: This category often showed varied effects across different cities and time periods, and it's useful to contrast it with simple assault.
- Robbery: Robbery rates generally decreased, linked to fewer people being in public commercial areas, thus reducing opportunities.
- Rape/Sexual Offences: Data on rape often showed a decline in reports, but this is also subject to significant underreporting concerns during lockdown conditions.
Non-Violent Crime Types to Capture
- Residential Burglary: Expect a significant decrease in residential burglaries, as more people were home acting as "capable guardians".
- Non-Residential/Commercial Burglary: Conversely, these crimes often increased, as commercial buildings were left vacant and less supervised.
- Vehicle/Motor Vehicle Theft: This crime showed mixed results, with some areas reporting increases, possibly because more vehicles were left unattended in residential areas rather than secure work parking lots.
- Theft (especially Larceny/Shoplifting/Theft from Person): These crimes generally decreased substantially due to closed businesses and reduced foot traffic in public spaces.
- Drug Offenses: This category saw some of the largest declines in police-recorded incidents, which some attribute to changes in policing priorities and reduced street-level transactions, rather than a true drop-in underlying activity.
- Anti-social Behaviour: Some studies noted an increase in anti-social behaviors, which included breaking lockdown restrictions.
- Fraud: Research points to an increase in fraud, particularly related to government economic relief programs and online scams, which is a key pandemic-related trend not captured in traditional street crime data.
Data Considerations
- Disaggregation: Capture data at a detailed level (e.g., monthly, weekly, and specific crime types, not just "overall violent crime") to better analyze the nuances of the lockdown's impact.
- Reporting Bias: Be aware that police data might not reflect the true incidence of some crimes (e.g., domestic violence, rape, drug offenses) due to changes in reporting capabilities or police priorities during the pandemic.
- Contextual Data: Consider capturing complementary data such as local mobility data (e.g., Google Community Mobility Reports data), unemployment rates, and the stringency and timing of lockdown measures, as these can help explain observed trends.
- Data Sources: Utilize official statistics from national sources like the FBI's National Incident-based Reporting System (NIBRS) or the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), and complement with local police department open data portals or academic studies that have compiled such data.