Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on crime

Counterfeiting and fraud directly related to the COVID-19 pandemic has also been uncovered.[16] In the beginning of March 2020, over 34,000 counterfeit surgical masks were seized by law enforcement authorities worldwide as part of Operation Pangea,[17] supported by Interpol and Europol.[16] Police in India seized thousands of fake N95 masks, raided shops selling overpriced masks and sanitizers, and initiated a case against hoarders of personal protective equipment (PPE).[18][19][20] In the United States, individuals were arrested after impersonating doctors and demanding payments for treatment.[21]

Operation Stolen Promise was enacted with aid from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Food and Drug Administration, the US Postal Inspection Service, the US Secret Service, the Internal Revenue Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Five Eyes Law Enforcement Working Group, an intelligence coalition formed by Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The operation investigated and seized shipments of "mislabeled, fraudulent, unauthorized, or prohibited" COVID-19-related items.[22]

With more people spending more time online, cyber crime has increased.[23] With remote work increasing, more and more corporate data is being accessed from homes that may not have the same level of computer security as office systems.[24] The World Health Organization published a cyber security notice warning people of fraudsters imitating WHO[25] employees.[26]

Another cyber fraud in America resulted in money that was meant for the unemployed being redirected to fraudulent accounts.[27] The scale of it involves millions of dollars and it appears that the cyber-criminals are Nigerian.[28]

According to government data, as of February 2021, one in three workers in the UK were engaging in remote work due to the COVID-19 lockdowns, which has resulted in an increase in the cyber-attacks on employees. The lack of knowledge about cyber-attacks and cyber-security has been claimed as a prime reason behind rising cyber-crime in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic.[29]

Amid the reported global increase in domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic, the United Nations called for a domestic violence "ceasefire".[30]

In Peru, the number of women reported missing has surged from five per day from before COVID-19 to eight during the lock-downs. In total, 915 women in Peru were reported missing and feared dead during the three months quarantine.[31]

An intelligence report compiled by the FBI's Houston branch warned against the likely increase of hate crime incidents against Asian Americans, based on the assumption that a portion of the US public associate the pandemic with China and Asian American populations. They also referenced multiple incidents of hate crimes already perpetrated across the country such as three Asian American family members stabbed by an individual who claimed that the family was Chinese and spreading the virus.[32]

In its magazine Al-Naba, ISIL recommended that its members exploit the pandemic in order to carry out terrorist attacks. Some extremists regard the virus as being divine punishment for human sins, both in the West and in Muslim countries. The International Crisis Group said that the pandemic would harm international counterterrorism efforts.[33] However, academic research suggests that this has not borne out. Brancati et al find that lockdowns associated with the pandemic lead to decreased violence by ISIL.[34]

In April in India, an advisory was circulated among Delhi police staff of a potential ISIL attack on police personnel in the field, in the form of a lone wolf attack or "stabbing, firing or hitting by vehicles".[35] Between January and May 2020, Indian security forces conducted 27 counterterrorism operations in Jammu and Kashmir in which more than 64 terrorists were killed.[36] Out of these, at least 18 were killed during the COVID-19 lockdown in India.[37] In the first week of May, five Indian Army special forces para commandos were killed by terrorists.[38] Riyaz Naikoo, a commander of the terrorist organization Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, in his last audio message in April 2020, told his followers to follow health safety guidelines that health experts were sharing during the COVID-19 pandemic. He was killed shortly after.[39]

Also in May a series of attacks in Afghanistan resulted in the deaths of 56 people. The targets included a hospital's maternity ward and a funeral, resulting in the deaths of babies, hospital staff, and people at the funeral.[40][41]

A railway worker from London contracted COVID-19 and died after a man assaulted her and a coworker. The man said he had the virus and proceeded to spit and cough in the women's faces before running away.[42] Police responding to a domestic incident in Durham, England, were spat on by a teenager who shouted at officers that he hoped he had COVID-19; he was charged with assaulting an emergency worker.[43] Between April 1 and June 6, 2020, the Irish police were purposefully spat or coughed on by individuals on 93 occasions, causing the department to increase their use of spit hoods by 70%.[44][45] On April 24, 2021, Spanish police arrested a man suspected of infecting 22 people, eight directly and 14 indirectly, with the virus, saying he made no efforts to quarantine himself or wear a facemask despite showing symptoms and having done a test.[46]

In the United States, multiple police departments documented individuals coughing or spitting on responding officers and saying that they had COVID-19. Charges that could be filed against these individuals range from second-degree assault or terrorist threatening.[47] A New Jersey woman spat on a police officer and told responding officers that she was positive for COVID-19 while they were arresting her.[48] Similar cases were reported in Florida,[49] Colorado,[50] Michigan,[51] Ohio,[52] and other states.[a 1]

In India, the Tablighi Jamaat religious event hosted by an Islamic missionary group became the country's largest super-spreader, resulting in various type of criminal charges being filed against the attendees for not heeding lockdown restrictions.[53][54] More than 800 foreigners who attended the event were tracked down and their visas blacklisted.[55] Indian media reported that those who were quarantined by the government spat on healthcare personnel among other things,[56][57][58] resulting in numerous charges under the Indian Penal Code.[59] The Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, in a television interview, said that "to hide a disease which is infectious is definitely a crime. And this crime has been done by those associated with the Tablighi Jamaat". The National Security Act and murder charges were filed against some of the Tablighi Jamaat attendees.[60]