Where, When, and By Whom: An Exploratory Analysis of COVID-19 Public Health Violations

• Author: Nicole Leeper Piquero,Alex R. Piquero,Justin Kurland,Elizabeth L. Gloyd,Wanda E. Leal
• Date: 01 November 2021
• Published date: 01 November 2021
• DOI: 10.1177/10439862211034321
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/10439862211034321

Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice

2021, Vol. 37(4) 523 –542

© The Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/10439862211034321

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Article

Where, When, and By

Whom: An Exploratory

Analysis of COVID-19

Public Health Violations

Wanda E. Leal1, Justin Kurland2,

Alex R. Piquero3,4, Elizabeth L. Gloyd5,

and Nicole Leeper Piquero3

Abstract

COVID-19 health restrictions not only affected crime rates but also created a new

and temporary type of crime, COVID-19 public health violations. Unfortunately,

this new crime type has not yet been empirically scrutinized. The current study

is the first to explore these COVID-19 public health violations by using a dataset

created by the City of San Antonio which documents all calls and inspections about

COVID-19 public health violations. Specifically, this study investigates the location

types (where) that produce the greatest number of calls/inspections, warnings,

and citations for COVID-19 public health violations; how they trended over time

(when); and which agencies responded to and enforced them (who). The results

indicate that there were differences across location type, variation throughout the

observation period, and violations were enforced by several agencies. It is crucial

to document the effect of COVID-19-related policies so that we may be better

prepared for the future.

Keywords

COVID-19, public health violations, policing, San Antonio

1Texas A&M University-San Antonio, USA

2The University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, USA

3University of Miami, Coral Gables, USA

4Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

5Southern Arkansas University, Magnolia, USA

Corresponding Author:

Wanda E. Leal, Department of Social Sciences, College of Arts & Sciences, Texas A&M University-San

Antonio, 1 University Way, San Antonio, TX 78224, USA.

Email: Wanda.Leal@tamusa.edu

1034321CCJXXX10.1177/10439862211034321Journal of Contemporary Criminal JusticeLeal et al.

research-article2021

524 Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice 37(4)

Introduction

When the novel coronavirus began spreading around the world, almost every domain

of daily life changed. Schools closed moving classroom instruction online, small and

large gatherings were limited, social events were canceled, and businesses were forced

to either operate at severely reduced capacities or shutter. Crime was not a domain

immune from the effects of the coronavirus. Certain types of crime, particularly vio-

lent crime and domestic violence, increased when COVID-19 restrictions were first

implemented (Boman & Gallupe, 2020; Mohler et al., 2020; Piquero et al., 2020,

2021; Rmandic et al., 2020; Rosenfeld et al., 2021) and gang crime stayed fairly con-

stant (Brantingham et al., 2021), while decreases were found for most forms of prop-

erty crime during this same initial time period (Andresen & Hodgkinson, 2020; De la

Miyar et al., 2021; Gerell et al., 2020; Halford et al., 2020; Hodgkinson & Andresen,

2020; Kim & Leung, 2020; Payne et al., 2021). Understandably, the criminological

community was focused on examining how the deadly coronavirus was affecting

crime at the local level; however, the pandemic affected not only traditional crimes but

also created a new type of crime: COVID-19 public health violations.

To reduce the spread of COVID-19, federal and state governments implemented a

multitude of public health restrictions such as stay at home orders, mask mandates,

limits on public and private gatherings, as well as constraining business operations.

Although these measures were intended to help stop, or at the very least slow, the

spread of the highly contagious coronavirus, the violation of them is also a crime. The

levels of enforcement and punishment of the restrictions varied by not only state but

also by county (National Academy for State Health Policy, 2020). Therefore, the ensu-

ing COVID-19 health restrictions not only affected crime rates but also created a new

and temporary type of crime, COVID-19 public health violations, that has not yet been

empirically scrutinized.

Currently, all that is known about COVID-19 public health violations is that certain

individual characteristics are associated with compliance of public health orders. For

example, females and individuals with higher levels of education, higher risk percep-

tion, trust in the government, and sense of moral obligation are more likely to comply

with public health orders (Brouard et al., 2020; Clark et al., 2020; Harper et al., 2020;

Shao & Hao, 2020; Webster et al., 2020). However, research has yet to investigate

where these public health violations were most likely to occur, how they trended as

public health restrictions changed, and who was responsible for enforcing these public

health rules.

The current study is the first to explore these COVID-19 public health violations by

examining calls for service and proactive inspections about this new crime type in one

of the most populous cities in the country, San Antonio, Texas. This analysis will

investigate three specific aspects of COVID-19 public health enforcement: (a) which

places produced the greatest number of calls/inspections, warnings, and citations for

COVID-19 public health violations; (b) how these calls/inspections, warnings, and

citations for COVID-19 public health violations trended throughout the specified time

period; and (c) which agencies responded to and enforced COVID-19 public health

violations.