Domestic violence has increased during coronavirus lockdowns

WITH HALF the world’s population under some form of lockdown to slow the spread of covid-19, most activities have been dramatically curtailed, including illegal ones. Official figures suggest that crime has plummeted in many big cities. Violent crime, including murder, rape and assault, has fallen even more sharply. But as lockdowns began, campaigners sounded warnings that domestic violence—a crime committed in private, in people’s homes—would become more, not less, frequent. Those fears appear to have been borne out.

An analysis by The Economist of data from five big American cities indicates that although most types of crime have indeed fallen in recent weeks, reports of domestic violence have increased. Sifting through over 100,000 reports from police departments in Chicago, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Memphis and New Orleans, which all went into lockdown between March 19th and 24th, we estimate that total crime soon fell by 25%, compared with the week ending on March 1st. However, reports of domestic violence increased by 5%. (Because crimes follow a marked weekly pattern, our chart shows seven-day averages.)