By United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling Section 

  The COVID-19 pandemic has affected countries and people globally; it has also exacerbated existing disadvantages, poverty and vulnerabilities. The initial measures to contain the health crisis have not always considered those most vulnerable and affected by violence and exploitation. This report seeks to bring to the forefront the challenges for anti-trafficking during the pandemic and share promising practices and lessons learned in order to prepare for a more inclusive crisis-response in the future, leaving no one behind. In particular, the report explores the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on (1) the scale and characteristics of trafficking in persons; (2) victims of trafficking; and (3) frontline organizations (law enforcement, prosecution services, the judiciary and the protection and reintegration services provided by non-government organizations (NGOs)). The report also examines the different initiatives developed in response to the challenges created by COVID-19 and identifies promising practices.    

Vienna: UNODC, 2021. 90p.

By Shubhangi Agrawal, Tom Kirchmaier and Carmen Villa-Llera

   We analyse how crime trends evolved during the Covid-19 pandemic.  Police have recorded fewer crimes overall during the pandemic, but a larger share of these are serious offences (such as violence). Note: these records exclude cybercrime.  Violent crimes, which have been on the rise since 2014, remain at very high levels and did not decrease because of the pandemic.  Public order offences (incidents in which offenders cause public fear, alarm, or distress) were on the rise pre-pandemic, and the trend has accelerated since Covid began.  Except for online fraud, acquisitive offences - in which criminals obtain a material gain, such as burglary or theft - are now less common than pre-Covid. During national lockdowns, local acquisitive crimes decreased dramatically. Once lockdowns were lifted, the rate remained very low (especially for shoplifting and robbery). This trend is likely to remain, as more people work from home and shop online.  During months of national lockdowns, the number of anti-social behaviour and drug offences went up, but quickly returned to pre-pandemic levels once lockdowns ended.  The pandemic has not decreased crimes uniformly. Some areas (37 per cent) had more crimes in 2021 than during the same period in 2019. Unemployment and lower educational attainment appear to be key characteristics of areas that had higher crimes in 2021.  

London: London School of Economics, Centre for Economic Performance, 2022. 26p.

By The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC)

Restrictions on movement imposed by govern- ments across the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic have had an impact on the trafficking of substandard and falsified medical products. Interpol and the World Customs Organization (WCO) reported that seizures of substandard and falsified medical products, including person- al protective equipment (PPE), increased for the first time in March 2020. The emergence of trafficking in PPE signals a significant shift in organized criminal group behaviour that is directly attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has brought huge demand for medical products such as PPE over a relatively short period of time. It is foreseeable that, with the evolution of COVID-19 and developments in medicinal treatments and/or the repurposing of existing medicines, criminal behaviour will shift from trafficking in PPE to the development and delivery of a COVID-19 vaccine. Furthermore, cyberattacks on critical infrastructure involved in addressing the pandemic are likely to continue in the form of online scams aimed at health procurement authorities. Challenges in pandemic preparedness, ranging from weak regulatory and legal frameworks to the prevention of the manufacturing and trafficking of substandard and falsified products and cyber security shortcomings, were evident before COVID-19, but the pandemic has exacerbated them and it will be difficult to make significant improvements in the immediate short term. The report concludes that crime targeting COVID-19 medical products will become more focused with significantly greater risks to pub- lic health as the containment phase of the pan- demic passes to the treatment and prevention stages.  

Vienna: UNODC, 2020. 31p.