Urban Greening Reduces Crime… Everywhere
“Can the presence of green space in urban environments reduce the frequency of violent crime?” This was the question posed by a ground breaking study of over 40 previous research papers on the subject published in 2019 by US academics in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. The comprehensive study covered many areas includings social ownership, reduced agression linked to lower ambient temperatures and lower stress levels. You can read the paper here but in short they concluded “the presence of parks and other green space reduces urban crime.“
Most of the research studies examined however, were typically on data collected in Europe and North America, which are very different socially and economically to developing countries often with markedly lower rates of crime than more Southerly, poorer nations. But a new study published in the journal Science of The Total Environment has found that even in hotter, poorer nations the benefits are clear to see in the data. Focusing on South Africa, which has one of the highest crime rates in the world, results “corroborate many previous studies from the global north indicating that greener neighbourhoods have significantly lower rates of violent and property crimes.“
Overall the authors believe this study contributes a “growing body of knowledge showing that increasing urban greening generally is correlated with lower crime rates.” That’s no matter where you are.
- You can read the full original 2019 study “The Impact of Green Space on Violent Crime in Urban Environments: An Evidence Synthesis” here: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/24/5119
- You can read the new full paper “Is green space associated with reduced crime? A national-scale study from the Global South” here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004896972201097X
- An excellent summary, written with the help of the authors, is available here: https://theconversation.com/crime-is-lower-when-cities-are-greener-evidence-from-south-africa-supports-the-link-191581
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