<\/a><\/p>\n

Published in Foreign Policy<\/a><\/p>\n

By Robert Muggah<\/p>\n

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To say that COVID-19 changes everything is already a clich\u00e9. But it\u2019s also true. The pandemic is deepening tension between China and the United States, accelerating the digitalization of commerce, and shining a bright light on the inequalities that divide our societies. It is also triggering dramatic knock-on effects in the criminal underworld. After a\u00a0temporary lull in homicidal violence<\/a>\u00a0in some countries, there are signs that it is rising once more. Meanwhile, crime groups are\u00a0migrating online<\/a>\u00a0to where the action is. If left to their own devices, they could make the world a more dangerous place.Police shortages and market shocks are triggering fresh waves of violence in Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico, where criminal groups are fighting over a diminishing pie.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many countries actually witnessed\u00a0declines in some types of crime<\/a>\u00a0and increases in others shortly after the imposition of social distancing and lockdowns to slow the virus. In much of North America and Western Europe, for example,\u00a0murder and violent assault plummeted<\/a>\u00a0as people stayed at home. On the other hand, reported\u00a0domestic abuse and sexual violence exploded<\/a>. Predictably, the confinement of people to their homes increased exposure to abusive partners.<\/p>\nRead more<\/a>\n

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To say that COVID-19 changes everything is already a clich\u00e9. But it\u2019s also true.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":36765,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[153,151,812,1303],"tags":[1268,1267,299,249,498],"tema":[],"acompanhe":[],"biblioteca":[],"class_list":["post-40389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-op-eds","category-types-of-content","category-covid-19-en","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid19","tag-foreign-policy","tag-robert-muggah","tag-violence-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n