Unemployment and Crime in US Cities During the Coronavirus Pandemic.

ABSTRACT: Unemployment and violence both increased during the coronavirus pandemic in the United States (US), but no studies to our knowledge have examined their association. Using data for 16 US cities from January 2018 to July 2020, we estimated the association between acute changes in unemployment during the coronavirus pandemic and violent and acquisitive crime. We used negative binomial regression models and parametric g-computation to estimate average differences in crime incidents if the highest and lowest levels of unemployment observed in each city had been sustained across the exposure period (March-July 2020), compared with observed unemployment in each city-month. During the pandemic, the percentage of the adult population who were unemployed was 8.1 percentage points higher than expecte

SUBMITTER: Schleimer JP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8793820 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature