Druglords Don’t Stay at Home: COVID-19 Pandemic and Crime Patterns in Mexico City

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on conventional crime and organized crime in Mexico City, Mexico.

Methods: Mexico City’s Attorney General’s Office reported crime data, covering domestic violence, burglary, robbery, vehicle-theft, assault-battery, homicides, kidnapping, and extortion. We use an event study for the intertemproal variation across the 16 districts (municipalities) in Mexico City for 2019 and 2020.

Results: We find a sharp decrease on crimes related to domestic violence, burglary, and vehicle theft; a decrease during some weeks on crimes related to assaultbattery and extortion, and no effects on crimes related to robbery, kidnapping, and homicides.

Conclusions: While our results show a decline in conventional crime during the COVID-19 pandemic, organized crime remains steady. These findings have policy implications for catastrophic events around the world, as well as possible national security issues in Mexico.

Keywords: Crime, Organized Crime, COVID-19, Mexico

JEL Classification: J12, J16, J18