Epidemiological Criminology and COVID: A Transdisciplinary Analysis of Violent Crime and Emergency Department Admissions during COVID

Abstract

As little is known about the influence of COVID-19 on rates of violent crime, the purpose of this study is to examine violent injury captured by emergency department admissions and by law enforcement in a mid-sized midwestern city (Omaha, Nebraska) from January 2016 to December 2020. Although COVID-19 did not show a direct significant relationship, weeks during the COVID-19 period showed a marginal increase in incident rate ratios for violent incidents in both datasets. While violence remained stable during the pandemic, racial differences between samples were observed. This study emphasizes the utility of a transdisciplinary approach to understand the underlying drivers of violent crime and victimization.

Keywords

• epidemiological criminology
• COVID-19
• pandemic
• violence
• emergency department
• shootings