Did the first Covid-19 national lockdown lead to an increase in domestic abuse in London?

On March 23rd 2020, the UK, following close behind a number of other countries went into its first national lockdown in a bid to stop the spread of Covid-19. Boris Johnson told people to stay at home and save lives. But what happens when home isn’t safe? This paper uses data from the Metropolitan Police to examine the impact of the first lockdown on domestic abuse in the 32 boroughs of the London Metropolitan area. Using a before and after approach, and controlling for other factors, we show that domestic abuse crimes rose during lockdown. We find this increase is greater for some crimes and populations than others and is consistent across the whole lockdown period. Once lockdown restrictions are eased, rates decline but remain slightly higher than prior to lockdown up to 3 months later