Levels of ethnic, racial and sexual harassment in the UK declined during the pandemic. This was largely driven by the reduction of time that people spent in public places due to lockdowns and other social restrictions. Threatening events, such as pandemics or terrorist attacks, can trigger an increase in racist and discriminatory behaviour. In an […]
Category: Crime & policing
In the first lockdown, crime was lower except for anti-social behaviour and drug offences. As economic effects of the pandemic change the incentives to break the law, deprived areas have seen a rise in acquisitive crimes, such as burglary, shoplifting and bicycle theft. The Covid-19 pandemic has changed both the composition and level of crimes […]
Some have seen the UK’s vote to leave the European Union as a ‘trigger’ event, perhaps giving would-be perpetrators of racial and religious hate crime the idea that many people share their extreme views and increasing the probability of criminal incidents. The UK’s referendum vote to leave the European Union (EU) was followed by an […]
Pandemics and severe recessions are the kind of threatening events that can trigger racist and discriminatory behaviour, often as a result of negative media portrayals. Immigrants and ethnic minorities could experience a more hostile environment during the Covid-19 crisis. A long tradition of research on racist attitudes and discriminatory practices has shown that threatening events […]