With state level requirements for populations to stay at home and emergency legislation coming into effect across the globe, the COVID-19 pandemic created a host of issues around law & order, and the responsibilities of the state in protecting its citizens, vs. the right to privacy and freedom. Indeed, this sparked protests in various territories around the world. Elsewhere there were criticisms of the policing of new rules, while other types of crime reports both increases and decreases.
Videos
This BBC news video presents many examples of protests held across the US this summer, many protesting lockdown restrictions and citing US constitutional rights to freedom of movement, while others protested the perceived lack of action and rising death toll.
Resources
- File on 4: COVID CrimeWith some real life case studies and interviews with both victims and perpetrators of crime, this BBC podcast explores the increase in certain types of criminality during the coronavirus pandemic.
- Aggravating circumstances: How coronavirus impacts human traffickingThis international imitative against human trafficking explored the positive and negative impacts the pandemic has had on the global human trafficking trade.
- Crime, justice, policing and COVID-19: What are experts concerned about?This UK Parliamentary blog post explores the various issues that justice experts are concerned with, from increases in the crime rates, to issues with the criminal justice system and strains on policing.
- The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on human rights and the rule of law - Our actionThe Council of Europe Directorate General also picks up on Human Rights and the rule of law within the constraints of a pandemic. See the videos from the 2020 St Petersburg International Legal Forum for expert contributions on the debate.
- Disease Control, Civil Liberties, and Mass Testing — Calibrating Restrictions during the Covid-19 PandemicLikewise, this article from the Open Access New England Journal of Medicine explores the tension between civil liberties and control measures.
- Prison estate expanded to protect NHS from coronavirus riskOne immediate concern for the Criminal Justice System was the difficulty of implementing social distance within prison populations and the inherent risk to inmates. This news article from Gov.Uk details the Government response in the UK.
- Is protesting during the pandemic an ‘essential’ right that should be protected?Meanwhile this essay looks at the right to protest as an "essential activity" versus the increased risk in public gathering, and whether protesters were able to social distance sufficiently.