Anti-social behaviour in the coronavirus pandemic

Area of Science:

• Criminology
• Public Health
• Data Science

Background:

• Anti-social behaviour (ASB) recorded by police significantly increased early in the COVID-19 pandemic in England and Wales.
• This contrasts sharply with steep declines observed in most other crime categories.
• The study investigates the drivers behind this ASB increase, differentiating between traditional ASB and COVID-19 regulation breaches.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the reasons for the dramatic rise in police-recorded anti-social behaviour (ASB) during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• To determine the extent to which breaches of COVID-19 regulations contributed to ASB statistics.
• To compare police-recorded ASB increases with findings from the Telephone Crime Survey for England and Wales.

Main Methods:

• Utilized Freedom of Information requests to survey police forces regarding the recording of COVID-19 regulation breaches as ASB.
• Employed natural language processing (NLP) techniques to analyze the textual data within police ASB records.
• Compared police data with the Telephone Crime Survey for England and Wales to understand discrepancies.

Main Results:

• Police recording practices for ASB varied considerably across different geographical areas.
• The primary driver for the early pandemic increase in recorded ASB was breaches of COVID-19 regulations.
• Approximately half of these COVID-19 regulation breaches also encompassed elements of traditional ASB, such as noise complaints.

Conclusions:

• The surge in recorded anti-social behaviour during the early pandemic was predominantly linked to COVID-19 regulation breaches.
• A significant overlap exists between pandemic-related rule-breaking and pre-existing forms of ASB.
• The study demonstrates the potential of natural language processing (NLP) for analyzing police text records to inform crime policy.