Abstract

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has left the world in disarray and severe consequences of its effects are being felt everyday. Because this pandemic is on-going, there are very limited number of research and evidence on the impacts of COVID on criminality. Like many phenomena in the field of Health Geography, to better understand COVID and its effects on crime, examining the spatiotemporal relationships that exists is crucial (Tselka et al., 2021). This study will strictly focus on the crime in Vancouver, BC. Various statistical and spatial analysis was performed across multiple scales including city-scale, neighbourhood-scale, and census tracts. Temporal factor was included as well to compare the effects of COVID on crime across three years of 2019, 2020, and 2021, each representing COVID-related statuses: 2019 (Pre-COVID), 2020 (Lockdown), and 2021 (Restriction). Results included notable changes in both the neighbourhood scale and city scale of crime from COVID. The outcome from this study will hopefully benefit future research and policing strategies to adapt to the changing crime rate and patterns due to COVID.