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COVID-19 containment policies are not only curbing the spread of COVID-19 but also changing human behavior. According to the routine activity theory, owing to lockdown, the closure of entertainment sites (e.g., pubs and bars), an increase in stay-at-home time, and an increase in police patrols are likely to influence chance of committing a crime. In this study, we aimed to further examine the spatial association of COVID-19 infection rate and crime rate. Particularly, we empirically validated the speculation that increase in COVID-19 cases is likely to reduce crime rate. In the empirical study, we investigated whether and how COVID-19 infection rate is spatially associated with crime rate in London. As the spatial data used are mainly areal data, we adopted a spatial regression mode (i.e., the “random effects eigenvector spatial filtering model”) to investigate the spatial associations after controlling for the socioeconomic factors. More specifically, we investigated the associations for all the four crime categories in three consequent months (March, April, and May of 2020). The empirical results indicate that 1) crime rates of the four categories have no statistically significant associations with COVID-19 infection rate in March; 2) violence-against-the-person rate has no statistically significant association with COVID-19 infection rate; and 3) robbery rate, burglary rate, and theft and handling rate have a statistically significant and negative association with COVID-19 infection rate in both April and May.

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Nowadays, urban space has become more fragmented and largely consists of many unconnected enclaves. The significance of neighborhood amenities to resident’s quality of life has been identified in the recent literature. However, studies have inadequately explored the real experience of residents in their use of neighborhood amenities under the gated urban form. Since the 1990s the urban environment of many Chinese cities has been re-shaped by the large creation of gated neighborhoods. Based on a case study in the city of Shenzhen, this paper draws upon evidence of residential satisfaction with local amenities to reveal a significant variation between different neighborhoods. The outcome of the enlarged social differentiation is a result of imbalanced micro-level urban development. The findings also provide new evidence demonstrating the increased fragmentation of society as the consequence of urban privatization. By linking the planning process with the social outcome, this paper reflects on the current strengths and weaknesses of the Chinese urban planning system.