Effects of greening and community reuse of vacant lots on crime

Kondo, Michelle C.; Hohl, Bernadette C.; Han, SeungHoon; Branas, Charles C.

doi:10.1177/0042098015608058

Cited by 231 publications

(105 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Secondly, we should focus GI resources on low-income and high-crime environments where exposure to GI is most needed and may have the greatest impact, as seen in the results of various studies. GI mitigates the crime rate and stress that might come from living in a deprived community [21,49,50]. Designers should also design indoor spaces so that people have views of trees and green spaces because window views to green spaces have positive effects on mental restoration [13,35], although the amount of nature required for this benefit is still unclear and needs to be studied further.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The findings held for property crime (e.g., vandalism, burglary, robbery), drug crime (e.g., uses of narcotics), and violent crime (e.g., assaults, sexual assaults, gun assaults) [43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50]. It is notable that while GI is consistently associated with lower-violence crimes, crimes against property sometimes increase after GI installation [49]. The authors of this article do not provide any suggestions regarding why that might be the case.…”

Section: Crimementioning

confidence: 92%

“…Newer forms of GSI often include more species richness and natural plantings; some people describe such plantings as 'messy'. An experimental study exploring the nature of plantings found that redesigning urban vacant lots to include organized components, such as trees and mowed grass instead of weeds, reduced crime rates [49]. A study in Germany investigated differences in the perceptions of urban vacant spaces by landscape planners and laypeople and reported that both groups liked species richness; however, laypeople preferred formal More preferred [82][83][84][85] Perceived as restorative [84] Other Steadier heartbeat [12] More preferred [86,87] Higher happiness index [88] GSI Green Stormwater Infrastructure parks with well-trimmed plants and geometrical designs while landscape planners prefer more natural-looking areas.…”

Section: Other Vegetated Components Of Green Stormwater Infrastructurementioning

confidence: 99%

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Green Infrastructure, Green Stormwater Infrastructure, and Human Health: A Review

Suppakittpaisarn

Jiang

Sullivan

2017

Curr Landscape Ecol Rep

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Purpose of the Review In a growing trend, cities around the world have been installing Green Infrastructure (GI) in the form of vegetated landscapes that provide ecological benefits such as stormwater management, wildlife habitats, and temperature moderation (Tzoulas et al. Landsc Urban Plan. 61(3):11, 2007). Some GI, such as trees and green spaces, have positive impacts on human health. It is less clear how newer types of GI, such as rain gardens, green roofs, and bioswales, impact human health. These newer GI types are called Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI). Planners and designers need to know the extent to which GSI impacts humans. This systematic review does exactly that-we explore the published evidence regarding the relationships between GI and human health. Recent Findings We identified 55 peer-reviewed articles addressing these issues. Familiar types of GI, such as trees and green spaces, were found to be beneficial to the body (cardiovascular system, cortisol regulation, and pregnancy health), mind (attention capacity and mental health), and behavior (lower crime, better self-regulation, and more pro-social behaviors). We found much less research exploring the impacts of GSI on health.Summary Our findings show that for some of the specific categories of GI, such as trees, considerable evidence exists on the impacts on human health. For other categories, such as rain gardens, green roofs, or biodiverse plantings, however, there is scant evidence of a health impact. We believe it is likely that these forms of GI do impact human health and that the reason for the scarcity of evidence is that few careful studies have examined the impacts of newer forms of GI on specific human health outcomes. Future researchers should investigate the health effects of type, dose, frequency, and duration of exposure to GI and GSI.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Crimementioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Other Vegetated Components Of Green Stormwater Infrastructurementioning

confidence: 99%

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Green Infrastructure, Green Stormwater Infrastructure, and Human Health: A Review

Suppakittpaisarn

Jiang

Sullivan

2017

Curr Landscape Ecol Rep

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“…However, previous research in other cities and additional spatial displacement tests of the effects of abandoned building and vacant lot remediation conducted as part of our analyses in Philadelphia suggest that firearm violence displacement effects like this had little impact on our findings. 26,27,50,51 Another concern is that the blight remediation strategies presented here may have led to gentrification and the displacement of low-and middle-income residents and that this may affect our findings. To be clear, the blight remediation strategies studied here were specifically chosen because they were inexpensive, scalable, and designed to be installed immediately proximal to where residents lived, oftentimes in low-income neighborhoods.…”

Section: Study Limitations and Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 92%

Urban Blight Remediation as a Cost-Beneficial Solution to Firearm Violence

et al. 2016

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Objectives. To determine if blight remediation of abandoned buildings and vacant lots can be a cost-beneficial solution to firearm violence in US cities.Methods. We performed quasi-experimental analyses of the impacts and economic returns on investment of urban blight remediation programs involving 5112 abandoned buildings and vacant lots on the occurrence of firearm and nonfirearm violence in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from 1999 to 2013. We adjusted before-after percent changes and returns on investment in treated versus control groups for sociodemographic factors.Results. Abandoned building remediation significantly reduced firearm violence -39% (95% confidence interval [CI] = -28%, -50%; P < .05) as did vacant lot remediation (-4.6%; 95% CI = -4.2%, -5.0%; P < .001). Neither program significantly affected nonfirearm violence. Respectively, taxpayer and societal returns on investment for the prevention of firearm violence were $5 and $79 for every dollar spent on abandoned building remediation and $26 and $333 for every dollar spent on vacant lot remediation.Conclusions. Only a modicum of attention has been paid to intervening upon the context within which firearm violence occurs and the urban environments in which it thrives. It is now commonly accepted that changing the context within which health problems occur is a leading opportunity for high-impact change, often better than focusing on individuals and lifestyles. [13][14][15][16][17] This may also apply to firearm violence-individuals who are simply instructed to adhere to safety practices are unlikely to be successful if the unsafe context within which they find themselves day after day does not permit it. Directly changing the contexts and environments that promote firearm violence is a potentially potent solution to explore in reducing the persistent problem of firearm violence in the United States. Such contextual changes may take the form of actual, in-situ changes to the environments themselves, an approach that may be more politically feasible, economically viable, and have a greater probability of widespread implementation. 13,18 Cities in the United States experience a heavily disproportionate burden of the nation's interpersonal firearm violence. 19Urban shootings are concentrated in neighborhoods stricken by poverty and neglect, and a growing body of scientific evidence suggests that blighted neighborhood environments are strongly tied to firearm violence in US cities. 9,[20][21][22][23][24][25] It is very possible that directly treating aspects of these blighted environments in inexpensive ways could produce lasting reductions in urban firearm violence. However, to our knowledge, no research has yet investigated the cost benefits, Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6021 (e-mail: cbranas@upenn.edu). Reprints can be ordered at http://www.ajph.org by clicking the "Reprints" link.

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“…These changes encourage residents to go outside and take advantage of public spaces, thus increasing surveillance of prior unsupervised areas of neighborhoods. Strategies like these have recently been found to reduce violence in the surrounding area (34–36). Supportive relationships between youth involved in violence and adults are rare.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Youth's Daily Activities and Situational Triggers of Gunshot Assault in Urban Environments

Dong

Branas

Richmond

et al. 2017

Journal of Adolescent Health

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Purpose Although previous research has made progress in identifying individuals predicted to face an elevated risk of being shot, it is not clear how that risk varies within individuals based on the contexts they encounter as they navigate daily life. The current study examines how the convergence of individual risk activity and neighborhood disadvantage and disorder triggers the risk of being shot. Methods Using a novel geographic information system (GIS) application, 123 male gunshot assault victims between 10–24 years old in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania described their minute-by-minute movements over the course of the day of the gunshot assault. Through latent class analysis, the primary exposure was real-life circumstance where nine theoretically informed risk factors converged, compared with two other circumstances. Case-crossover analyses of subjects’ 10-minute segments of full-day activities compared gunshot assault victims at the time of assault with themselves earlier in the day. Results Compared to when individuals were exposed to minimal situational risk or were mainly exposed to neighborhood disadvantage and disorder, the concurrence of risk activity and neighborhood disadvantage and disorder was associated with a 9.90 (95%CI: 2.72–36.14) and 6.06 (95% CI: 2.78–13.22) times higher risk of being shot. Importantly, the likelihood of being in the high-risk circumstance increased systematically over the course of the day leading up to the time when young individuals were shot. Conclusions After controlled individual’s propensity to be shot (e.g. inherent traits), the concurrence of situational risks emerged as significant triggers of gunshot assault. The findings suggest potential for community-based gunshot violence interventions.

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Effects of greening and community reuse of vacant lots on crime

Cited by 231 publications

References 44 publications

Green Infrastructure, Green Stormwater Infrastructure, and Human Health: A Review

Green Infrastructure, Green Stormwater Infrastructure, and Human Health: A Review

Urban Blight Remediation as a Cost-Beneficial Solution to Firearm Violence

Youth's Daily Activities and Situational Triggers of Gunshot Assault in Urban Environments

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