Murders not affected by drop in crime during lockdown
The coronavirus pandemic and the social restrictions that came with it resulted in a decrease in most forms of crime in the Netherlands. But the number of murders were unaffected. Cybercrime increased, Trouw reports based on figures from the police and the Victim Support foundation.
Other countries also saw that the pandemic reduced crimes like theft, robbery and burglary, but not the number of murders. An international team of researchers, led by Amy Nivette from Utrecht University, studied the crime rates during the pandemic in 27 cities worldwide and found that the number of murder and manslaughter cases were unaffected.
The researchers believe this is because in many of those cities, a large proportion of fatal crimes are committed at home or can be attributed to organized crime. Lockdown had little effect on both those scenarios.
In June this year, the Dutch police registered 63,302 crimes in the Netherlands, 6 percent less than in June last year, and almost 30 percent less than in February 2020 - the month before the first lockdown was implemented in the Netherlands. With almost everyone at home all the time, the number of burglaries decreased. And fewer people on the street also meant fewer pickpockets, rapes, and assaults.
The lockdowns had the opposite effect on cybercrime, which benefited from people being at home and online all day. While the pandemic caused some variations in the cybercrime figures, it didn't alter the underlying trend of this type of crime rising rapidly for years, according to the newspaper.
A bright point in the police figures is that the feared increase of domestic violence during lockdown did not materialize. Veilig Thuis, the organization that helps domestic abuse victims, was surprised by this, spokesperson Karin Jobse said to Trouw. "Perhaps working and studying from home brought more peace of mind. But that is nothing more than conjecture. We are conducting scientific research to find an explanation."
