Exploring the Immediate Effects of COVID-19 Containment Policies on Crime: an Empirical Analysis of the Short-Term Aftermath in Los Angeles

This work investigates whether and how COVID-19 containment policies had an immediate impact on crime trends in Los Angeles. The analysis is conducted using Bayesian structural time-series and focuses on nine crime categories and on the overall crime count, daily monitored from January 1st 2017 to March 28th 2020. We concentrate on two post-intervention time windows—from March 4th to March 16th and from March 4th to March 28th 2020—to dynamically assess the short-term effects of mild and strict policies. In Los Angeles, overall crime has significantly decreased, as well as robbery, shoplifting, theft, and battery. No significant effect has been detected for vehicle theft, burglary, assault with a deadly weapon, intimate partner assault, and homicide. Results suggest that, in the first weeks after the interventions are put in place, social distancing impacts more directly on instrumental and less serious crimes. Policy implications are also discussed.

Exploring the Effects of COVID-19 Containment Policies on Crime: An Empirical Analysis of the Short-term Aftermath in Los Angeles

This work investigates whether and how COVID-19 containment policies had an immediate impact on crime trends in Los Angeles. The analysis is conducted using Bayesian structural time-series and focuses on nine crime categories and on the overall crime count, daily monitored from January 1st 2017 to March 28th 2020. We concentrate on two post-intervention time windows—from March 4th to March 16th and from March 4\textsuperscript{th} to March 28th 2020—to dynamically assess the short-term effects of mild and strict policies. In Los Angeles, overall crime has significantly decreased, as well as robbery, shoplifting, theft, and battery. No significant effect has been detected for vehicle theft, burglary, assault with a deadly weapon, intimate partner assault, and homicide. Results suggest that, in the first weeks after the interventions are put in place, social distancing impacts more directly on instrumental and less serious crimes. Policy implications are also discussed.

Exploratory Study on Intimate Partner Kidnapping: Is This a Prevailing Issue in Intimate Partner Relationships?

The following study is an exploratory analysis of intimate partner kidnapping. This research focuses on kidnappings that occur between adult intimate partners only. The purpose of this research is to identify the prevalence rates and demographic patterns of this type of violence as well as make comparisons between intimate partner kidnapping and nonintimate partner kidnapping and comparisons between intimate partner kidnapping and intimate partner assaults (a more commonly studied form of intimate partner violence). This research relies on the National Incident-Based Reporting System (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2012) not only to identify descriptive characteristics but also to conduct bivariate comparisons of the different types of kidnapping violence and intimate partner violence. The findings from this research find that despite being a fairly rare event, intimate partner kidnapping occurs more often than nonintimate partner kidnapping, although not more often than intimate partner assaults. There are several differences between intimate partner kidnapping and nonintimate partner kidnapping as well as intimate partner kidnapping and intimate partner assault. Victims of intimate partner kidnapping were significantly younger than nonintimate partner kidnapping and intimate partner violence assaults, and females were more likely to be victims of kidnapping compared to nonintimate partner kidnapping and intimate partner violence assaults. There was a higher proportion of Whites and Hispanics who were victims of intimate partner kidnapping. There was also a greater proportion of blunt object/personal weapons (compared to firearms and knives) used in intimate partner kidnapping. Lastly, there was a significantly lower proportion of severe injury in intimate partner kidnapping compared to intimate partner violence assaults. A discussion of the conclusions and implications and directions for future research is also included.

Presumptive Arrest in Partner Assault: Use of Discretion and Problems of Compliance in the New Zealand Police

Since pro-arrest policies in domestic violence became popular in the United States in the 1980s, numerous western countries have followed suit. In most cases, research has shown that implementation of the policies has fallen short of expectations, with arrest rates that are surprisingly low. In New Zealand, pro–arrest strategies have been employed since 1987 and results have been similar. This article argues that one of the reasons for noncompliance in New Zealand (and probably elsewhere), is that the complexities of domestic violence situations make pro–arrest difficult to apply in practice. Moreover, in order to protect themselves from official criticism for deviating from policy, in this study frontline police sometimes filed incomplete or inaccurate incident reports. This made it hard to determine exactly how well the policy was being implemented and whether or not it was working.

Readiness to Change, Partner Violence Subtypes, and Treatment Outcomes Among Men in Treatment for Partner Assault

Men court-mandated to attend a batterer’s intervention program (BIP) were evaluated to determine whether pre-BIP readiness to change and the presence of partner violence subtypes predicted BIP completion, criminal recidivism, and postadjudication partner violence 6 months post-BIP. Of the 199 subject sample, 40% did not complete BIP. Four readiness-to-change clusters were found, with most men (76%) reporting change-resistant stages-of-change profiles. The partner violence typology reported by Holtzworth-Munroe et al. (2000) was supported with clustering into four subtypes: family only (FO), low-level antisocial (LLA), borderline/dysphoric (BD), and generally violent/antisocial (GVA). BIP completion was predicted by violence subtype (with BD and GVA more likely to drop out) but not by pre-BIP readiness to change. Men rearrested scored higher on the precontemplative stage of change and were more likely to be in the BD and GVA subtypes. Implications for counseling strategies are discussed.

An Exploration of Prevalence of Domestic Violence in Same-Sex Relationships

The prevalence of domestic violence in a sample of 33 men and 33 women currently or previously in same-sex relationships was assessed. Data were collected through a mail survey in the state of Virginia. Of 1000 surveys sent out 66 usable ones were returned (response rate = 6.6%). Analysis indicated that 34 had experienced some form of domestic violence, but significant differences between male and female respondents were not detected. When data from this same-sex sample were compared with those of the heterosexual sample of the National Violence Against Women Survey, intimate partner assault may be more prevalent against gay men than against heterosexual men, but there was no significant difference between lesbians and heterosexual females.