The Effect of the CARES Act on Property Crime

Abstract

As a means of reducing the effects of COVID-19, governments implemented mitigation policies, including economic stimulus bills. Nearly all known research in the criminal justice literature examines the impact of local lockdown measures on different forms of crime. Studies have not been conducted on the effect of the CARES Act on crime. The purpose of the present study is to examine the impact of the CARES Act on property crime. The dependent variables were total property, burglary, larceny and theft, and auto theft rates. The control variables were the population structure, southern state, concentrated disadvantage, non-White, and lockdown. The independent variable was the CARES Act. OLS regression analyses were conducted to test for relationships between the CARES Act and property crime. The models indicated significant negative relationships between the CARES Act and the total property crime rate, the burglary rate, and the larceny and theft rate.