ABSTRACT

We assessed immediate and long-term trends in calls for police service regarding domestic violence following COVID-19 stay-at-home orders. Using open data from the Police Data Initiative, we performed interrupted time-series analyses of weekly calls for service for domestic violence in New Orleans (LA), Cincinnati (OH), Seattle (WA), Salt Lake City (UT), Montgomery County (MD), and Phoenix (AZ). Results indicate that five of the six jurisdictions experienced an immediate, significant spike in domestic violence calls for service (Cincinnati being the lone exception). As stay-at-home orders were lifted throughout the remainder of 2020, domestic violence calls for service declined in every jurisdiction but Salt Lake City. These results illustrate (1) the importance of studying the localized effects of COVID-19 on criminal justice issues, (2) the need for more agencies to publish open data in a timely fashion, and (3) the caution researchers and the public must use when working with calls for service data, which are not uniform across agencies and require careful cleaning prior to analysis.

摘要

我们评估了在COVID-19在家下达命令后有关家庭暴力的警察服务呼吁的近期和长期趋势。利用来自警方数据计划的开放数据，我们对每周在新奥尔良（LA），辛辛那提（OH），西雅图（WA），盐湖城（UT），蒙哥马利县的家庭暴力服务提供的电话进行了中断的时间序列分析（MD）和凤凰城（AZ）。结果表明，六个司法管辖区中有五个司法管辖区的家庭暴力呼吁迅速增加（辛辛那提是唯一的例外）。由于在整个2020年剩余时间内取消了全屋服务订单，除盐湖城市以外，每个辖区的家庭暴力要求服务的呼声都下降了。这些结果说明（1）研究本地化的重要性 COVID-19对刑事司法问题的影响；（2）需要更多机构及时发布公开数据；（3）研究人员和公众在处理要求提供服务的数据时必须注意的事项在各机构之间保持统一，并在分析之前需要仔细清洁。