Reducing Crime Through Environmental Design: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment of Street Lighting in New York City

Aaron Chalfin, Benjamin Hansen, Jason Lerner and Lucie Parker

No 25798, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper offers experimental evidence that crime can be successfully reduced by changing the situational environment that potential victims and offenders face. We focus on a ubiquitous but surprisingly understudied feature of the urban landscape – street lighting – and report the first experimental evidence on the effect of street lighting on crime. Through a unique public partnership in New York City, temporary streetlights were randomly allocated to public housing developments from March through August 2016. We find evidence that communities that were assigned more lighting experienced sizable reductions in crime. After accounting for potential spatial spillovers, we find that the provision of street lights led, at a minimum, to a 36 percent reduction in nighttime outdoor index crimes.

JEL-codes: H40 H7 I1 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp, nep-law and nep-ure
Note: PE
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

Published as Aaron Chalfin & Benjamin Hansen & Jason Lerner & Lucie Parker, 2022. "Reducing Crime Through Environmental Design: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment of Street Lighting in New York City," Journal of Quantitative Criminology, vol 38(1), pages 127-157.

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