Crime and Town Centers: Are Downtowns More Dangerous Than Suburban Shopping Nodes?

Richard Peiser () and Jiaqi Xiong ()
Additional contact information
Richard Peiser: Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138
Jiaqi Xiong: Glenborough Realty Trust, San Mateo, CA 94043

Journal of Real Estate Research, 2003, vol. 25, issue 4, 577-606

Abstract: The perception of high crime rates in downtowns has hindered the revitalization of downtown shopping districts and adjacent residential areas. This paper presents a better methodology for measuring crime in commercial shopping districts, replacing the conventional method of quoting crimes per 100,000 residences with a measure that more accurately reflects one’s chance for being a crime victim. This new measurement is used to address the question of whether the downtown shopping districts of Los Angeles and San Diego are as dangerous as two of their most competitive suburban shopping areas—Santa Monica and Fashion Valley. The findings indicate that actual crime rates in both downtown Los Angeles and downtown San Diego are in fact lower that those of their suburban counterparts.

JEL-codes: L85 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2003
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://pages.jh.edu/jrer/papers/pdf/past/vol25n04/12.577_606.pdf Full text (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jre:issued:v:25:n:4:2003:p:577-606

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
Diane Quarles American Real Estate Society Manager of Member Services Clemson University Box 341323 Clemson, SC 29634-1323
http://pages.jh.edu/jrer/about/get.htm

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Real Estate Research is currently edited by Dr. Ko Wang

More articles in Journal of Real Estate Research from American Real Estate Society American Real Estate Society Clemson University School of Business & Behavioral Science Department of Finance 401 Sirrine Hall Clemson, SC 29634-1323.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by JRER Graduate Assistant/Webmaster ().