@article{THESIS,
      recid = {3274},
      author = {Smith, Andrew},
      title = {The heterogeneous effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on theft  across location categories in Chicago},
      publisher = {University of Chicago},
      school = {M.A.},
      address = {2021-08},
      number = {THESIS},
      abstract = {A salient observation during the COVID-19 Pandemic is that  theft has been reduced throughout the United States. The  objective of this research is to determine if this  reduction was heterogeneous across location categories:  Nonessential and Essential businesses, Public Buildings,  Transportation, Residences, and Streets. Data from the  Chicago Data Portal is used to measure the amount of daily  theft in the city from January 1st 2018 to November 30rd  2020. The response variables are standardized using their  respective pre-pandemic mean and standard deviations. A  identical segmented regression is specified for the  response variables and the Pandemic is coded as a dummy  variable. The six location categories are modeled as a  system using seemingly unrelated regression. A chi squared  statistic of a the Wald Test is applied pair-wise to  determine if their was a statistically significant  difference in coefficient estimates across restricted and  unrestricted regression equations. Overall, the all  location categories experienced a decline in theft between  0.58 and 2.59 standard deviations below their mean values.  The results indicate that the Pandemic was associated with  a disproportionate decline in theft at both essential and  nonessential businesses, where the latter had deviated from  it’s average by 2.59 standard deviations during the  Pandemic. Residences, Public Buildings, and Streets had a  similar deviation in theft. The results align with Routine  Activities Theory, which predicts that the impact of the  Pandemic on daily routines would disrupt the interaction  between criminal and victim (or their property), resulting  in fewer incidences of crime. Further research is needed to  determine if these results generalize to other cities in  the United States. A clear definition of the Pandemic is  needed in the literature to further identify how the  Pandemic impacted criminal behavior.},
      url = {http://knowledge.uchicago.edu/record/3274},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.6082/uchicago.3274},
}