The boy, who, like other classmates, did not want to be named, said that in the early days of the pandemic, he heard that guys on the street were stealing cars to make some money. Then, according to him, young people began to do this, first jumping into cars that were standing unattended and unattended, and just driving around. Videos of these trips around the city began to appear on social networks.
Soon, “car theft became a sport,” said one of the community organizers. “Big van,” said another.
“The thrill is almost like a fad,” said Waris Majid. “When you don’t have events in their communities, everything is closed, young people will find a way to have fun. It’s a vacation, that’s what it is.”
The notion that crime comes in and out of fashion is not new. In the early 2000s, some youths in Washington began stealing cars, calling themselves “UU Boys” after being convicted of “unauthorized use of a vehicle”. Then, according to Eduardo Ferrer, policy director for the Georgetown Juvenile Justice Initiative, car theft began to plummet and mobile phone theft began to spread.
“Throughout my career it has been interesting to see how the composition of crime changes with no apparent explanation,” said Professor Ferrer. “Some of them are crimes of opportunity, people are looking for such low-hanging fruits.”
It is clear, he said, that the long-term impact of the lonely and traumatic years of the pandemic on adolescent development cannot be overestimated. While schools are returning to face-to-face instruction and recreation centers are reopening, that impact — and the rise in car theft — has not gone away.
“I don’t think people are ready for how much we will have to dig up and treat for a pandemic,” Professor Ferrer said.