Author(s): Hamsir, Muhammad Ikram Nur Fuady
This study aims to provide an overview and information about the influence of the Covid-19 pandemic on crime trends. This study focuses on the Gowa Regency area as a sample by conducting in-depth interviews with 20 detainees who are criminals during the pandemic period from March 2020 to August 2021. The findings in this study are that the number of crimes tends to decrease during the Covid-19 pandemic in Gowa Regency. This can be seen from the downward trend of 32.5% in 2019 and 11.2% in 2020. Most of these crimes are economic crimes committed to earning big profits, where researchers found a total of 12 types of crime through 20 respondents. Crimes that occur are also dominated by densely populated areas in the capital city of Gowa Regency, such as market areas and densely populated settlements. This is also supported by the perspective of criminals who mostly think that the Covid-19 pandemic is an opportunity to commit crimes, and they tend not to believe in the existence of the coronavirus. The following finding is that crimes committed during the Covid-19 pandemic have several causative factors, namely economic pressure, calm conditions, and association, while economic pressure is the dominant factor that gives birth to many crimes. Therefore, this shows that the coronavirus pandemic significantly affects economic conditions that contribute to the growth of crime. The researcher recommends that the police pay more attention to patrolling densely populated areas in the urban area. The government immediately provides alternative solutions in improving economic conditions during the pandemic so that crime does not happen again.