A critical study of Covid-19 pandemics on crime rates in India

Abstract

Covid - 19 pandemic has wide ranging repercussions including the direct and massive impact on the employment sector. The sudden outbreak of this virus affected the labor market in immeasurable ways and in order to curb this menace, the need of the hour was a nationwide lockdown. As a result, people ran out of jobs and unemployment rates escalated. People were bogged down into situations of poverty, starvation, and misery. Sadly, many of them indulged in activities like robbery, dacoity, etc. in order to sustain and support their families. Thus, covid aftermath wasn’t restricted to rise in unemployment rates, but also led to spike in crime rates in India. Through this paper, we have studied the impact of the pandemic on crime rates. Our paper treats literacy rate, infant mortality rate, per capita income and unemployment rate as factors affecting crime rates, with unemployment rate being a major determinant. Multiple regression model is used to test the hypothesis that the pandemic scaled up unemployment rates, thereby leading to a surge in crime rates.