The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the murder of George Floyd on victim and third-party reporting of domestic violence to the police in the US

By  Yasemin Irvin-Erickson, Auzeen Shariati 

In our study, we examined the potential short-term and long-term impacts of the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and the murder of George Floyd on victim and third-party reporting of DV incidents to the police using data from the National Crime Victimization Survey. DV incidents during the pandemic lockdown period between March and May 2020 were positively associated with victim reporting to the police, compared to not reporting. Although we observed a decrease in victim reporting and third-party reporting of DV incidents in the months following the murder of George Floyd, this decrease was only significant in the fall months of 2020 for third-party reports of DV. DV incidents during the last pandemic period we considered in our study between April 2021 and December 2022 were positively associated with third-party reporting. We conclude by discussing the implications of these findings.

Journal of Criminal Justice, Volume 90, January–February 2024, 102141