IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/vid/yearbk/v20y2022i1oid0x003d332c.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Are homicides and robberies associated with mortality due to COVID-19? Lessons from Urban Mexico

Author

Listed:
  • Claudia Masferrer
  • Oscar Rodríguez Chávez

Abstract

Studies on the symbiosis of crime and COVID-19 have analyzed governmentmandated lockdown effects. However, it is unknown to what extent previous crime rates determined a larger and more mortal spread of the pandemic. We study how homicides and robberies in the pre-pandemic year of 2019 are associated with 2020 mortality rates due to COVID-19 in urban municipalities in Mexico. Considering sex differentials in health, exposure to the virus and experiences of violence, we study whether gender differences in mortality exist in 2020. Using publicly available data on deaths due to COVID-19 provided by the Mexican Secretariat of Health, along with a series of indicators to characterize local pre-pandemic conditions of urban municipalities, we estimate a series of ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models on age-standardized crude death rates (ASCDR) by sex. Findings show that homicides—a proxy for criminal violence that might encourage people to stay home—show significant negative associations with mortality rates. Comparatively, robberies—a proxy of local violence and safety—were positively associated with mortality rates for both sexes. Sex differences in the determinants of ASCDR are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Claudia Masferrer & Oscar Rodríguez Chávez, 2022. "Are homicides and robberies associated with mortality due to COVID-19? Lessons from Urban Mexico," Vienna Yearbook of Population Research, Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, vol. 20(1), pages 367-390.
    • Handle: RePEc:vid:yearbk:v:20:y:2022:i:1:oid:0x003d332c
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://austriaca.at/0xc1aa5576_0x003d332c.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Balmori de la Miyar, Jose Roberto & Hoehn-Velasco, Lauren & Silverio-Murillo, Adan, 2021. "Druglords don’t stay at home: COVID-19 pandemic and crime patterns in Mexico City," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    2. Kulu, Hill & Dorey, Peter, 2020. "Infection Rates from Covid-19 in Great Britain by Geographical Units: A Model-based Estimation from Mortality Data," SocArXiv 84f3e, Center for Open Science.
    3. Payne, Jason Leslie & Morgan, Anthony, 2020. "COVID-19 and Violent Crime: A comparison of recorded offence rates and dynamic forecasts (ARIMA) for March 2020 in Queensland, Australia," SocArXiv g4kh7, Center for Open Science.
    4. Abrams, David S., 2021. "COVID and crime: An early empirical look," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Carlos Díaz & Sebastian Fossati & Nicolás Trajtenberg, 2022. "Stay at home if you can: COVID‐19 stay‐at‐home guidelines and local crime," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(4), pages 1067-1113, December.
    2. Lydia Cheung & Philip Gunby, 2023. "The Initial and Dynamic Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Crime in New Zealand," Working Papers in Economics 23/03, University of Canterbury, Department of Economics and Finance.
    3. Roee Sarel, 2022. "Crime and punishment in times of pandemics," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 54(2), pages 155-186, October.
    4. Wolff, Kevin T. & Intravia, Jonathan & Baglivio, Michael T. & Piquero, Alex R., 2022. "Violence in the Big Apple throughout the COVID-19 pandemic: A borough-specific analysis," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    5. Solmaz Moslehi & Jaai Parasnis & Massimiliano Tani & Josephina Vejayaratnam, 2021. "Assaults during lockdown in New South Wales and Victoria," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 24(2), pages 199-212.
    6. Moslehi, Solmaz & Parasnis, Jaai & Tani, Massimiliano & Vejayaratnam, Josephina, 2021. "Assaults during Lockdown in NSW and Victoria," IZA Discussion Papers 14573, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Barron, Kai & Parry, Charles D.H. & Bradshaw, Debbie & Dorrington, Rob & Groenewald, Pam & Laubscher, Ria & Matzopoulos, Richard, 2022. "Alcohol, Violence and Injury-Induced Mortality: Evidence from a Modern-Day Prohibition," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, issue Online Ea, pages 1-44.
    8. Enrique Garcia Tejeda, 2022. "La concentracion espacial de los reportes de disparos al 911 en la Ciudad de Mexico: ¿Comportamiento racional en el uso de armas durante la pandemia Covid-19?," Sobre México. Revista de Economía, Sobre México. Temas en economía, vol. 3(5), pages 69-93.
    9. Lydia Cheung & Philip Gunby, 2022. "Crime and mobility during the COVID-19 lockdown: a preliminary empirical exploration," New Zealand Economic Papers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(1), pages 106-113, January.
    10. Maurizio Malpede & Soheil Shayegh, 2022. "Staying home saves lives, really!," Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 637-651, December.
    11. Ria Ivandic & Tom Kirchmaier & Ben Linton, 2020. "Changing patterns of domestic abuse during Covid-19 lockdown," CEP Discussion Papers dp1729, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    12. Peter Congdon, 2021. "COVID-19 Mortality in English Neighborhoods: The Relative Role of Socioeconomic and Environmental Factors," J, MDPI, vol. 4(2), pages 1-16, May.
    13. Kyriakos C. Neanidis & Maria P. Rana, 2023. "Crime in the era of COVID‐19: Evidence from England," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(5), pages 1100-1130, November.
    14. Miller, Amalia R. & Segal, Carmit & Spencer, Melissa K., 2022. "Effects of COVID‐19 shutdowns on domestic violence in US cities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    15. Carr, Joel & James, Jonathan & Clifton-Sprigg, Joanna & Vujic, Suncica, 2022. "Hate in the Time of COVID-19: Racial Crimes against East Asians," IZA Discussion Papers 15718, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Jesse Matheson & Brendon McConnell & James Rockey & Argyris Sakalis, 2023. "Do Remote Workers Deter Neighborhood Crime? Evidence from the Rise of Working from Home," Working Papers 2023020, The University of Sheffield, Department of Economics.
    17. Daniele Grechi & Matilde Ceron, 2021. "Pandemic management in the EU through gendered lenses: a comparative analysis using the Oxford covid-19 government response tracker," RIEDS - Rivista Italiana di Economia, Demografia e Statistica - The Italian Journal of Economic, Demographic and Statistical Studies, SIEDS Societa' Italiana di Economia Demografia e Statistica, vol. 75(2), pages 127-137, April-Jun.
    18. Bilge Erten & Pinar Keskin & Silvia Prina, 2022. "Social Distancing, Stimulus Payments, and Domestic Violence: Evidence from the US during COVID-19," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 112, pages 262-266, May.
    19. Michele Battisti & Ilpo Kauppinen & Britta Rude, 2022. "Twitter and Crime: The Effect of Social Movements on GenderBased Violence," ifo Working Paper Series 381, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    20. Kausik Chaudhuri & Anindita Chakrabarti & Jose Martin Lima & Joht Singh Chandan & Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay, 2020. "The interaction of ethnicity and deprivation on COVID-19 mortality risk: A retrospective ecological study," Discussion Papers 20-22, Department of Economics, University of Birmingham.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:vid:yearbk:v:20:y:2022:i:1:oid:0x003d332c. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Bernhard Rengs (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.oeaw.ac.at/vid/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.