COVID-19, Race, and Crime: An Early Look at Racial Disparities in U.S. Arrest Data throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Background: This study explores how arrests changed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic across race. Daily life changed for everyone across the country with the onset of the pandemic, and early works have shown that crime changed in this period. Method: Official arrest data were pulled from the Indiana State Police database for several violent and property crimes covering 26 counties. Data were gathered from 2017 to 2021 for a comparison of pre-COVID-19 versus after the onset of COVID-19 (2020–2021). An OLS regression was run to assess differences in these patterns of arrests across Black and White populations. Results: This analysis finds that Black homicide, White homicide, and total Black violent crime arrests were significantly related to COVID-19 measures after controlling for other variables. The COVID-19 measures indicate that these crimes saw an increase in arrest after the onset of the pandemic and that these effects may not have been identical across race. Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic was linked to crime across race in the state of Indiana. Moving forward, it is important to uncover how crime changed across race in other locales and exactly what mechanisms may have driven these changes.