In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, state-level governments across the United States issued mandatory stay-at-home orders around the end of March 2020. Though intended to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus, the lockdowns have had sweeping impacts on life in ways which were not originally planned. This study’s purpose is to investigate the extent to which governmental responses to COVID-19 have impacted crime rates in the U.S. Compared to the pre-pandemic year of 2019, crime – as measured by calls for service to law enforcement – has decreased markedly. However, there are multiple indications that the crime drop is being driven by decreases in minor offenses which are typically committed in peer groups. At the same time, serious crimes which are generally not committed with co-offenders (namely homicide and intimate partner violence) have either remained constant or increased. As such, the crime drop appears to be hiding a very disturbing trend where homicides remain unchanged and intimate partner batteries are increasing. Since many offenders would presumably be committing less serious crimes in a non-pandemic world, we raise attention to the possibility that mandatory lockdown orders may have taken minor offenders and placed them into situations where there is rampant opportunity for intimate partner violence, serious batteries, and homicides. While crime in the U.S. appears to be down overall, this good news should not blind us to a troubling co-occurring reality – a reality that paints a dim picture of unintended consequences to public health and criminal justice finances as a result of COVID-19 lockdowns.

中文翻译：

---

COVID-19 改变了犯罪吗？大流行期间美国的犯罪率。

为应对 COVID-19 大流行，美国各州政府在 2020 年 3 月左右发布了强制性的居家令。尽管旨在阻止 COVID-19 病毒的传播，但封锁措施已全面实施以最初未计划的方式对生活产生影响。本研究的目的是调查政府对 COVID-19 的应对措施对美国犯罪率的影响程度 与 2019 年大流行前的一年相比，犯罪率（以执法部门服务电话衡量）显着下降。然而，有多种迹象表明，犯罪率下降是由通常发生在同龄人群体中的轻微犯罪的减少推动的。同时，通常不与同案犯共同犯下的严重罪行（即凶杀和亲密伴侣暴力）要么保持不变，要么有所增加。因此，犯罪率下降似乎隐藏了一个非常令人不安的趋势，即凶杀案保持不变，而亲密伴侣的电池正在增加。由于在非大流行的世界中，许多罪犯可能会犯下不太严重的罪行，因此我们提请注意，强制性封锁令可能已将轻罪者置于可能发生亲密伴侣暴力、严重殴打、和凶杀案。虽然美国的犯罪率总体上似乎有所下降，