Covid and conflict: Local impacts and global questions
Coordinating Editor: Andres F. Rengifo
Rutgers University, School of Criminal Justice, NJ, United States
The health crisis triggered by COVID-19 has upended billions of lives from the staggering ranks of those directly exposed to illness and tragedy, to others affected by record levels of unemployment and the realignment of government operations and other services. The progression of the pandemic and its associated responses in government and society have fueledold conflicts and created new ones, many of whichhave amplified the potential for violence, abuse andother crimes. These twin forces have also recastbroader tensions involving the role of local vs. globalauthorities, the integration of state vs. private strate-gies, and the priority given to short vs. long-term poli-cies of mitigation and reconstruction.
To study these contrasts empirically and substan-tively, IJCV seeks submissions documenting the impact of COVID-19 across key topics related to conflictand violence. This encompasses the tracing of localproblems linked to the outbreak and their range of in-tended and unintended consequences, as well as thecritical assessment of global questions emerging in apost COVID-19 world. Consistent with the multidisciplinary nature of the journal, we welcome empirically grounded submissions from social sciences, human rights, law, and health/public health researchand related fields.
Topics of particular interest are:
•Impact of COVID-19 on vulnerable populations (refugees, displaced persons, people incarcerated, first-responders, elderly people).
•Impact of social-distance measures on recordedlevels of crime/violence (including, for example,homicide, and domestic violence), policing practices (staffing levels, deployments), and criminalsanctions (pre-trial detention, community-based sanctions).
•Disparities in the enforcement of social-distancemeasures across race/ethnicity/gender and interms of health-care provision or access to state-sponsored reconstruction programs.
•Structure of responses to COVID-19 in the GlobalNorth vs. South (local vs. national/federal responses, role of security/law enforcement agencies, approaches to testing and containment, bor-der controls, etc.), and associated conflicts overredistribution of wealth across or within countries.
•COVID-19 and crimes such as price-gouging, theft of medical supplies, counterfeited goods/smuggling, corruption) or more general forms ofvigilantism, stigma, and other evolving mechanisms of “social control” targeting suspected COVID-19 victims and first-responders.
Submissions: