South Australia homicide rates dropped during COVID-19 lockdown of 2020

Autopsy figures show SA’s homicide rate dropped drastically during the COVID-19 pandemic last year.

The number of murders committed during the pandemic is well down on recent years.

State Government autopsy figures between January 2015 and December 2020 show the number of homicides last year was less than a quarter of those in the worst year – 2017.

There were 92 cases: 17 in 2015, 18 in 2016, 23 in 2017, 14 in 2018, 15 in 2019, but, in 2020, there were only 5.

University of Adelaide Professor Roger Byard, who has published the findings in Forensic Science, Medicine and Pathology, said the variation in violence between the years was also stark when expressed as a percentage of all violent crimes.

Over the five-year period, homicides made up the highest percentage of all such crime cases in 2017 at a rate of 1.6 per cent, and the lowest in 2020 at a rate of 0.4 per cent.

University of Adelaide pathology Professor Roger Byard. Picture: Tom Huntley

Prof Byard said in a number of communities around the world, serious crime rates and domestic violence increased as a result of lockdowns. “But the incidence of homicides has fallen significantly in South Australia since the beginning of the pandemic,” he said.

Experts have speculated that in some communities the threat posed by the pandemic has brought people together.

In communities less affected by the disease, there may have been less stress and violence.

“As homicide is often fuelled by criminal activities, particularly related to illicit drugs and alcohol consumption, it may be that the government-imposed COVID restrictions limited these type of interactions,’’ Prof Byard said.

Originally published as South Australia homicide rates dropped during COVID-19 lockdown of 2020