IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v14y2021i14p4099-d590047.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Effect of Lighting on Crime Counts

Author

Listed:
  • Steve A. Fotios

    (School of Architecture, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK)

  • Chloe J. Robbins

    (School of Architecture, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK)

  • Stephen Farrall

    (Department of Criminology and Social Sciences, University of Derby, Derby DE22 1GB, UK)

Abstract

The influence of lighting on crime was investigated by considering the effect of ambient light level on crimes recorded in three US cities for the ten-year period 2010 to 2019. Crime counts were compared for similar times of day, before and after the biannual clock change, therefore employing an abrupt change of light level but without an obvious intervention such as improving road lighting in an area. The results suggest a significant increase in robbery during darkness, confirming previous studies. The results also suggest darkness leads to an increase in arson and curfew loitering offenses, and to a decrease in disorderly conduct, family offences (non-violent) and prostitution. Future research investigating the effectiveness of improved street lighting should consider that this may not be beneficial for all types of crime.

Suggested Citation

  • Steve A. Fotios & Chloe J. Robbins & Stephen Farrall, 2021. "The Effect of Lighting on Crime Counts," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-14, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:14:p:4099-:d:590047
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/14/4099/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/14/4099/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Domínguez, Patricio & Asahi, Kenzo, 2019. "Crime Time: How Ambient Light Affects Crime," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 9639, Inter-American Development Bank.
    2. Felson, Marcus & Poulsen, Erika, 2003. "Simple indicators of crime by time of day," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 595-601.
    3. Phil Hubbard & Teela Sanders, 2003. "Making space for sex work: female street prostitution and the production of urban space," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 75-89, March.
    4. Rajagopal, 2014. "The Human Factors," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Architecting Enterprise, chapter 9, pages 225-249, Palgrave Macmillan.
    5. Brandon C. Welsh & David P. Farrington, 2008. "Effects of Improved Street Lighting on Crime," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 4(1), pages 1-51.
    6. Uttley, Jim & Fotios, Steve & Lovelace, Robin, 2020. "Road lighting density and brightness linked with increased cycling rates after-dark," OSF Preprints cms3d, Center for Open Science.
    7. Jennifer L. Doleac & Nicholas J. Sanders, 2015. "Under the Cover of Darkness: How Ambient Light Influences Criminal Activity," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 97(5), pages 1093-1103, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tongyu Wang & Naoko Kaida & Kosuke Kaida, 2023. "Associations of Positive and Negative Perceptions of Outdoor Artificial Light at Night with Nighttime Outdoor Behaviors and Health: Self-Reported Data Analyses on Urban and Suburban Residents in Japan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-24, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pedro Tavares & Dmitrii Ingi & Luiz Araújo & Paulo Pinho & Pramod Bhusal, 2021. "Reviewing the Role of Outdoor Lighting in Achieving Sustainable Development Goals," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-28, November.
    2. Kikuta,Kyosuke, 2024. "Eclipse: How Darkness Shapes Violence in Africa," IDE Discussion Papers 941, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    3. Wheeler, Andrew Palmer, 2022. "Analysis of LED street light conversions on firearm crimes in Dallas, Texas," SocArXiv dr7us, Center for Open Science.
    4. Jelnov, Pavel, 2021. "Sunset Long Shadows: Time, Crime, and Perception of Change," IZA Discussion Papers 14770, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Jonathan James, 2023. "Let there be light: Daylight saving time and road traffic collisions," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 61(3), pages 523-545, July.
    6. Rahman, Shaikh Moksadur, 2020. "Relationship between Job Satisfaction and Turnover Intention: Evidence from Bangladesh," Asian Business Review, Asian Business Consortium, vol. 10(2), pages 99-108.
    7. Wang Kai, 2019. "Towards a Taxonomy of Idea Generation Techniques," Foundations of Management, Sciendo, vol. 11(1), pages 65-80, January.
    8. Bridgelall, Raj & Stubbing, Edward, 2021. "Forecasting the effects of autonomous vehicles on land use," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    9. Bevilacqua, Maurizio & Ciarapica, Filippo Emanuele, 2018. "Human factor risk management in the process industry: A case study," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 149-159.
    10. Naveena Prakasam & Louisa Huxtable-Thomas, 2021. "Reddit: Affordances as an Enabler for Shifting Loyalties," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 723-751, June.
    11. Colin Jerolmack & Alexandra K. Murphy, 2019. "The Ethical Dilemmas and Social Scientific Trade-offs of Masking in Ethnography," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 48(4), pages 801-827, November.
    12. Valeriy Makarov & Albert Bakhtizin, 2014. "The Estimation Of The Regions’ Efficiency Of The Russian Federation Including The Intellectual Capital, The Characteristics Of Readiness For Innovation, Level Of Well-Being, And Quality Of Life," Economy of region, Centre for Economic Security, Institute of Economics of Ural Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, vol. 1(4), pages 9-30.
    13. Zhao, Jing & Knoop, Victor L. & Wang, Meng, 2020. "Two-dimensional vehicular movement modelling at intersections based on optimal control," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 1-22.
    14. Kristine Edgar Danielyan & Samvel Grigoriy Chailyan, 2019. "Delineation of Effectors Impact on The Human Brain Derived Phosphoribosylpyrophosphate Synthetase-1 Activity," Biomedical Journal of Scientific & Technical Research, Biomedical Research Network+, LLC, vol. 24(1), pages 17918-17926, December.
    15. Chuan Wang & Yupeng Liu & Wen Hou & Chao Yu & Guorong Wang & Yuyan Zheng, 2021. "Reliability and availability modeling of Subsea Autonomous High Integrity Pressure Protection System with partial stroke test by Dynamic Bayesian," Journal of Risk and Reliability, , vol. 235(2), pages 268-281, April.
    16. Mohammad AL-Zoubi, 2018. "The Role of Technology, Organization, and Environment Factors in Enterprise Resource Planning Implementation Success in Jordan," International Business Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 11(8), pages 48-65, August.
    17. Damgaard, Mette Trier & Nielsen, Helena Skyt, 2018. "Nudging in education," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 313-342.
    18. Nicole D. Sintov & P. Wesley Schultz, 2017. "Adjustable Green Defaults Can Help Make Smart Homes More Sustainable," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-12, April.
    19. Hwang, ShinYoung & Kim Seongcheol, 2017. "What triggers the use of mIM service provider’s sequel O2O service extensions?," 14th ITS Asia-Pacific Regional Conference, Kyoto 2017: Mapping ICT into Transformation for the Next Information Society 168494, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    20. Sana Sadiq & Khadija Anasse & Najib Slimani, 2022. "The impact of mobile phones on high school students: connecting the research dots," Technium Social Sciences Journal, Technium Science, vol. 30(1), pages 252-270, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    lighting; crime; robbery;
    All these keywords.

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:14:p:4099-:d:590047. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.