AUTHOR=Li Nan , Quintana Diana , Shelton Matthew , Grigorenko Elena L. 

TITLE=Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on youth delinquency: A discontinuous growth analysis

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Education

VOLUME=Volume 8 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/education/articles/10.3389/feduc.2023.1007807

DOI=10.3389/feduc.2023.1007807

ISSN=2504-284X

ABSTRACT=This study aimed to investigate (a) the immediate and long-term changes in youth offending counts among 138 neighborhoods within a large metropolitan area in the context of COVID-19 and (b) the extent to which the socioeconomic composition of the neighborhoods accounted for variations of the changes. Discontinuous growth models were applied to demonstrate the changes in offenses against a person, property offenses, and drug-related offenses one-year prior to, at (March 2020), and one-year following the pandemic. At the onset of the pandemic, we registered an immediate reduction in offenses against a person and property offenses but not in drug-related offenses. There was a steeper declining trend for property offenses one-year following the pandemic as compared with that one-year prior to the pandemic. The neighborhood concentration of affluence and poverty was not related to the immediate reduction in any type of delinquency. We conclude that the COVID-19 pandemic not only had an abrupt but also an enduring impact on youth delinquency.