Abstract
In this chapter, we describe the development of the COVID-19 pandemic and its relation with different crime patterns in Belgium. Based on crime statistics, we examined the occurrence of various crime types in 2020 and made comparisons with previous years. Additionally, we paid extra attention to the case of domestic violence during the pandemic using data from secondary sources as well as from our own empirical survey studies. We found that whereas most crime types (e.g. theft, robbery, assault) occurred less in 2020 compared to previous years, with particularly low crime rates during periods of lockdown, this pattern was not found for cybercrime (which strongly increased), drug-related offences (which fluctuated), and domestic violence. For domestic violence, police statistics show relatively similar rates in 2020 compared to previous years, but findings from our own survey studies indicate that the pandemic and the governmental measures had a severe impact on its occurrence.
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Acknowledgements
We wish to thank the Belgian Federal Police, particularly the Department of Police Information and IT Resources, for providing us with the crime statistics for the years 2015–2020. Also, we wish to thank our colleagues Sarah Anrijs, Joke Depraetere, Sabine De Moor, Lotte De Schrijver, and Anne Nobels for the collaboration in the research projects and for their efforts in gathering data on domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Funding Statement
The work of Wim Hardyns and Koen Ponnet is supported in part by the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) Fundamental Research Projects funding scheme under Grant G010519N. The work of Janneke M. Schokkenbroek and Evelyn Schapansky is supported by the FWO PhD Fellowship fundamental research funding scheme under Grants 11K5421N (Schokkenbroek) and 11J0322N (Schapansky). The work of Christophe Vandeviver is supported in part by the FWO Postdoctoral Fellowship funding scheme under Grants 12C0616N and 12C0619N.
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Hardyns, W., Schokkenbroek, J.M., Schapansky, E., Keygnaert, I., Ponnet, K., Vandeviver, C. (2022). Patterns of Crime During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Belgium. In: Siegel, D., Dobryninas, A., Becucci, S. (eds) Covid-19, Society and Crime in Europe. Studies of Organized Crime, vol 21. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13562-0_13
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