20 Jan, 2021

Urban settings safe from crime and violence have been a top priority for a long time prior to COVID-19. The pandemic has accelerated and cast a harsh spotlight on well-known stressors such as low trust, exclusion, vulnerability, inequality, inconsistent law enforcement, imbalance of power and inadequate responses to unsafety. No matter the pre-existing status of social ecologies across the globe, our urban safety strategies have been tested in the harshest possible ways. COVID-19 is challenging our lifestyles and may have much longer and more profound effects than we ever assumed, requiring us to rethink many things that were taken for granted in our world.