| Summary: | There are studies on crime trend changes during the pandemic lockdown, but very few on homicide and rape instances afterward. This study investigates how lockdown and post-lockdown pandemic situations affect homicide and rape cases in Bangladesh. Initially, the investigation checked the bidirectional Granger cause between COVID-19 and the trend of crimes (homicide and rape). The study found a unidirectional Granger cause of COVID-19 in crime trend changes. Further, the study used the ordinary least square (OLS) approach to a dynamic model to produce unbiased, consistent, and efficient conclusions for future policy implications. Compared to the crime rates during normal (pre-pandemic) times, this study found that homicides increased substantially (9.5%) during the lockdown and declined marginally (3.0%) afterward. The rate of rapes dropped considerably (34.3%) during the lockdown, but it rebounded significantly (13.9%) during the post-lockdown pandemic period. This study suggests further investigations of the causes of increased rape cases during the post-lockdown pandemic period in the country.
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