Anti-social behaviour in the coronavirus pandemic
Abstract Anti-social behaviour recorded by police more than doubled early in the coronavirus pandemic in England and Wales. This was a stark contrast to the steep falls in most types of recorded crime. Why was ASB so different? Was it changes in ‘traditional’ ASB such as noisy neighbours, or was it...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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BMC
2022-07-01
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| Series: | Crime Science |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s40163-022-00168-x |
| _version_ | 1828775049865199616 |
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| author | Eric Halford Anthony Dixon Graham Farrell |
| author_facet | Eric Halford Anthony Dixon Graham Farrell |
| author_sort | Eric Halford |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Anti-social behaviour recorded by police more than doubled early in the coronavirus pandemic in England and Wales. This was a stark contrast to the steep falls in most types of recorded crime. Why was ASB so different? Was it changes in ‘traditional’ ASB such as noisy neighbours, or was it ASB records of breaches of COVID-19 regulations? Further, why did police-recorded ASB find much larger early-pandemic increases than the Telephone Crime Survey for England and Wales? This study uses two approaches to address the issues. The first is a survey of police forces, via Freedom of Information requests, to determine whether COVID-regulation breaches were recorded as ASB. The second is natural language processing (NLP) used to interrogate the text details of police ASB records. We find police recording practice varied greatly between areas. We conclude that the early-pandemic increases in recorded ASB were primarily due to breaches of COVID regulations but around half of these also involved traditional forms of ASB. We also suggest that the study offers proof of concept that NLP may have significant general potential to exploit untapped police text records in ways that inform policing and crime policy. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-11T15:33:19Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-542eb098336549ac8933f8d5ab460440 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2193-7680 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-11T15:33:19Z |
| publishDate | 2022-07-01 |
| publisher | BMC |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Crime Science |
| spelling | doaj.art-542eb098336549ac8933f8d5ab4604402022-12-22T01:00:00ZengBMCCrime Science2193-76802022-07-0111111410.1186/s40163-022-00168-xAnti-social behaviour in the coronavirus pandemicEric Halford0Anthony Dixon1Graham Farrell2Rabdan AcademyUniversity of LeedsUniversity of LeedsAbstract Anti-social behaviour recorded by police more than doubled early in the coronavirus pandemic in England and Wales. This was a stark contrast to the steep falls in most types of recorded crime. Why was ASB so different? Was it changes in ‘traditional’ ASB such as noisy neighbours, or was it ASB records of breaches of COVID-19 regulations? Further, why did police-recorded ASB find much larger early-pandemic increases than the Telephone Crime Survey for England and Wales? This study uses two approaches to address the issues. The first is a survey of police forces, via Freedom of Information requests, to determine whether COVID-regulation breaches were recorded as ASB. The second is natural language processing (NLP) used to interrogate the text details of police ASB records. We find police recording practice varied greatly between areas. We conclude that the early-pandemic increases in recorded ASB were primarily due to breaches of COVID regulations but around half of these also involved traditional forms of ASB. We also suggest that the study offers proof of concept that NLP may have significant general potential to exploit untapped police text records in ways that inform policing and crime policy.https://doi.org/10.1186/s40163-022-00168-xAnti-social behaviourAntisocial behaviorPolicingNatural language processingArtificial intelligenceCOVID-19 |
| spellingShingle | Eric Halford Anthony Dixon Graham Farrell Anti-social behaviour in the coronavirus pandemic Crime Science Anti-social behaviour Antisocial behavior Policing Natural language processing Artificial intelligence COVID-19 |
| title | Anti-social behaviour in the coronavirus pandemic |
| title_full | Anti-social behaviour in the coronavirus pandemic |
| title_fullStr | Anti-social behaviour in the coronavirus pandemic |
| title_full_unstemmed | Anti-social behaviour in the coronavirus pandemic |
| title_short | Anti-social behaviour in the coronavirus pandemic |
| title_sort | anti social behaviour in the coronavirus pandemic |
| topic | Anti-social behaviour Antisocial behavior Policing Natural language processing Artificial intelligence COVID-19 |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1186/s40163-022-00168-x |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT erichalford antisocialbehaviourinthecoronaviruspandemic AT anthonydixon antisocialbehaviourinthecoronaviruspandemic AT grahamfarrell antisocialbehaviourinthecoronaviruspandemic |