DUBLIN -- Pandemic lockdowns coincided with "significant" falls in crime rates in 27 cities across 23 countries, according to academics from the University of Cambridge and the University of Utrecht. The research, which was published on Wednesday in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, suggested that rates of "most types of crime" dropped "significantly" in the wake of an "unparalleled sudden change in daily life." However, homicides fell by a relatively low 14 per cent overall in what the team said was "a key exception" to their findings. With people in many cities forced to mostly stay at home by pandemic-related curbs, Amy Nivette of the University of Utrecht, in the Netherlands, said "restrictions on urban mobility may have little effect on domestic murders."