CoronaCrime #5

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has taken a terrible toll in lives, illness, and economic devastation and it is having diverse effects on violence and crime. Therefore, the Daily Prevention News publishes weekly a Corona Crime Issue dedicated to collect related relevant news and information.  

1. Disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on racial and ethnic minorities needs to be urgently addressedRising disparities in how COVID-19 is affecting communities, and the major disproportionate impact it is having on racial and ethnic minorities, including people of African descent, have exposed alarming inequalities within our societies, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said Tuesday. She noted that similar inequalities are also fuelling the widespread protests affecting hundreds of cities across the United States. Source: OHCHR

2. Epidemics have often led to discrimination against minorities – this time is no different
   Pandemics are not only biological phenomena but also social phenomena. Throughout history, pandemics have been powerful engines of social change, exposing inequalities in the distribution of health and wealth, and prompting calls for the reform of social institutions. Source: Mark Honigsbaum, University of London 

3. What public health experts want critics to know about why they support the protests

   As someone with asthma, Meredith Blake was very worried about getting sick in the pandemic. With Covid-19 spreading across America, she stayed inside her home in Boston for 12 weeks, isolating from others as much as possible. Her self-quarantine ended on June 1. After George Floyd’s killing at the hands of police in Minneapolis, she was compelled to march in the streets with a large crowd of other Bostonians, in close proximity. She wore a face mask and used lots of hand sanitizer wipes. Source: VOX

4. Life Under Coronavirus: a Survey
   The Centre for Children's Rights at Queen's University Belfast is working with organisations around the world to gather the views of children and young people during the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey, which is collecting the perspectives of children aged 8 to 17, is part of the university's CovidUnder19 Initiative. Source: End Violence Against Children
5. EU Drug Markets: Impact of COVID-19
   The two EU agencies have joined forces to improve understanding of drug market developments under COVID-19 and their impact on internal security and public health in the EU. The findings are based on opinions collected through a targeted EMCDDA online survey of drug experts in the EU Member States, Europol’s operational intelligence gathering on organised crime and structured monitoring of open-source information. Source: EUROPOL
6. Police violence and racial profiling during Covid-19 need to stop: governments must adopt measures to ensure justice
   The death of George Floyd in the United States has once again exposed racist police brutality. Recent events and data have revealed how racial profiling and police violence also target racialised communities in Europe and have been exacerbated during Covid-19. The European Network Against Racism (ENAR) calls for urgent measures to ensure justice for communities and hold law enforcement accountable. Source: ENAR
7. Impact of COVID-19 on crime
   An analysis of the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown has shown a decrease in almost all areas of crime recorded by police. However, the statistics, which compare data from this April to the same month last year, suggest an increase in some types of crime including fraud. Source: Scottish Government
8. How COVID-19 is impacting kids involved in the criminal justice system
   From school closings to social isolation to prom cancellations, there’s no question that American teenagers are being impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. Adolescents involved with the juvenile justice system are facing even more unique challenges navigating this trying time. Source: Michigan State University
9. 6 online safety tips for young people on the ‘new normal’
   The COVID-19 pandemic has created a world we could never have imagined. By March, schools in Australia made the transition to remote learning with young people increasing their use of technology to communicate with friends, family, and teachers daily. Unfortunately, at the height of the COVID-19 crisis, with young people spending more time online, eSafety saw forms of online abuse like cyberbullying and image-based abuse increase. Source: Australian eSafety Commissioner

10. Covid-19 and crime: A response develops at the UN

    This brief looks at the UN response to the crime and corruption aspects of the pandemic, and lays out several key crosscutting areas that will be critical for the institution to address as it leads a global effort to fight the pandemic and promote a recovery in line with Agenda 2030. Source: GITOC

11. Covid-19 SCCJR Blog Series

    The Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research has produced a series of blog articles discussing the impact of the pandemic on various aspects of our society and the criminal justice system. Articles covering topics like Prison and Covid-19, Families of Prisoners and Covid-19, Policing and Gender Based Violence. Source: SCCJR

12. Rethinking vulnerability through Covid‐19
    In times of crisis, inequalities are more commonly exaggerated than ameliorated – meaning both that vulnerable populations are often forced to make do with what resources are at hand and that many of those who barely manage in ‘normal’ times are pushed beyond capability and opportunity thresholds. Indeed, new case definitions of vulnerability that emerge in a crisis may push previously unrecognized groups (e.g. service employees, ‘care’ facility residents) into extreme vulnerability, as borderline coping quickly becomes calamity coping. To understand emerging vulnerability, it is therefore critical for social scientists to have a seat at the table where scarce resources are being allocated – before, during and after a crisis. Source: Anthropology Today
13. The EUISS Foresight Podcast: What if...Covid-19 impacted the US presidential elections?
    The pandemic has hit the US harder than any other country, and Americans are scheduled to go to the polls in November. Will the coronavirus lead to a postponement of the elections? And in that case what will happen? Will the virus swing the election in favour of either candidate? Senior Associate Analyst Simona Soare discusses this and more with Florence Gaub in this last instalment of the season. Source: EUISS
14. Aggravating circumstances: How coronavirus impacts human trafficking
    The coronavirus is not only claiming hundreds of thousands of lives, but is also causing a global economic crisis that is expected to rival or exceed that of any recession in the past 150 years. Although decisive action and containment measures are helping flatten the curve of infection, such measures inevitably deepen and lengthen the economic recession. Source: GITOC
15. If we want a less corrupt and more equitable world after the COVID-19 pandemic, we must plan for it
    Our new report looks at ten key areas of social, political and economic life – from social cohesion and trust to the role of big tech in our societies – post-COVID-19. Source: Transparency International
16. Will the legacy of COVID-19 include increased authoritarianism?
    From Brazil to Egypt to Hong Kong, checks and balances on power appear to be weaking amidst the coronavirus pandemic. Source: Transparency International
17. COVID-19 and human development
    The COVID-19 pandemic is unleashing a human development crisis. On some dimensions of human development, conditions today are equivalent to levels of deprivation last seen in the mid-1980s. But the crisis is hitting hard on all of human development’s constitutive elements: income (with the largest contraction in economic activity since the Great Depression), health (directly causing a death toll over 300,000 and indirectly leading potentially to an additional 6,000 child deaths every day from preventable causes over the next 6 months) and education (with effective out-of-school rates – meaning, accounting for the inability to access the internet – in primary education expected to drop to the levels of actual rates of the mid-1980s levels). This, not counting less visible indirect effects, including increased domestic violence, yet to be fully documented. Source: UNDP

Please find more information and news about the interlinkages between the Coronavirus, Crime and Violence in German published every Tuesday on our German News Service Tägliche Präventions News.