The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's Committee on Law and Justice (CLAJ) will host a workshop to explore crime rate changes during the pandemic, potential explanations for those rates, and opportunities for future methods, data, and research.

It will:

1. Explore existing data on the trends in multiple criminal offenses during the pandemic.
2. Explore existing explanations for the crime rate changes in multiple offense types during the pandemic for their scope, logical consistency, empirical support, and limitations, with special attention to explanations related to the pandemic and associated population restrictions (e.g., stay at home orders, social gathering restrictions, etc.)
3. Discuss methodological issues, data infrastructure needs, and research gaps to inform understanding of crime problems and rates.

A planning committee will define the specific topics to be addressed, develop the agenda, and select and invite speakers and other participants. After the workshop, a proceedings-in-brief of the presentations and discussions at the workshop will be prepared by a designated rapporteur in accordance with institutional guidelines.