Josh Crawford serves as the Director of Criminal Justice Initiatives at the Georgia Center for Opportunity, leading efforts in public safety and re-entry programs. In his work, he addresses the impact of bad policy on violence, cautioning against solely comparing crime rates between 2019 and 2022 as it may overlook the role of policy decisions in exacerbating the issue, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Crawford contends that the pandemic should not be used as a blanket excuse for rising crime rates, emphasizing the need to critically examine and address underlying policy issues contributing to the problem.

Joshua Crawford, Director of Criminal Justice Initiatives at the Georgia Center for Opportunity, discusses in his Wall Street Journal piece how COVID-19 has been used as an excuse for the surge in crime, shifting focus away from underlying policy issues that have exacerbated violence. This topic is explored in a conversation with Rod at 6:05 time mark of the audio file.