The common wisdom that more light on city streets deters crime is not substantiated by documented studies, a federal report claims
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References
1.
President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, “Task force report: science and technology,” U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1967, p. 51.
2.
It is estimated—based on an extrapolation of data contained in the LEAA Grant Management Information System—that some 8 to 12 million dollars of LEAA's total budget to date have been expended on street lighting and related projects. Other federal agencies (e.g., Department of Housing and Urban Development and Department of Transportation) have also funded street lighting projects for the express purpose of deterring crime.
3.
National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals, “Community crime prevention—report of the national advisory commission on criminal justice standards and goals,” prepared for the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, Washington, D.C., 1973, p. 199.
4.
For an understanding of the scope and purpose of the National Evaluation Program (NEP) see “Work description for an NEP Phase I study,” National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, Washington, D.C., February, 1977.
5.
TienJ. M., O'DonnellV. F., BarnettA. I., and MirchandaniP. B., “NEP Phase I assessment of street lighting projects,” Final and Summary Reports, Public Systems Evaluation, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, July, 1977.
6.
Table 1 is compiled from several sources, including: BeardsleyCharles W., “Let there be light, but just enough,” IEEE Spectrum, December, 1975, p. 28; and Edison Electric Institute, Street and Highway Lighting Committee, “Street Lighting Manual,” 2nd Ed., 1969.
CallenderDon, “Light, a weapon in war on accidents and crimes,” American Motorists, March, 1962.
9.
HooverJ. Edgar, “The lighted way,” General Federal Clubwoman Magazine, February, 1963.
10.
HooverJ. Edgar, “Out of the darkness,” Street and Highway Lighting, Vol. 20, No. 4, 1970.
11.
KellumCarl, HarmanskyGeorge, LandanElizabeth, and WestJohn Denis, “A comprehensive study of street lighting with an in-depth analysis of Plainview Subdivision, Jeffersontown, Kentucky,” Institute of Community Development, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, April 23, 1976.
12.
The three identically titled Library of Congress studies were conducted by BerlaNancy (October, 1965), JonesCharlotte (August, 1970), and BennetBeverly L. (May, 1976).
13.
“Correlation between street lighting and crime,” prepared for Rep. FarnsleyCharles P. by the Education and Public Welfare Division, U.S. Library of Congress, Congressional Record (House), October 12, 1965, p. 25855.
14.
However, only 25 percent of the Portland respondents indicated that they were aware of the existence of new lights.
15.
Continuing in this line of thought, one might postulate that the maximum impact street lighting can have on crime in a given target area is bounded by the number of crimes that occur in the area during the day, since the brightest street lighting system is that provided by daylight. Care must be taken in this postulation, however, since the land use characteristics during the day are usually different from those at night.
16.
See, for example, BlackwellRichard H., “Development of procedures and instruments for visual task evaluation,” Illuminating Engineering, April, 1970; GallagherV., KothB., and FreedmanM. “The specification of street lighting needs,” Report No. FHWA-RD-76-17, prepared by the Franklin Institute Research Laboratories, for the Federal Highway Administration, November, 1975; and Janoff Michael S., Koth Bruce W., McCunney William D., Freedman Mark, and Berkovitz Michael J., “Effectiveness of highway arterial lighting, Phase I—interim report (draft),” prepared by the Franklin Institute Research Laboratories for the Federal Highway Administration, September, 1976.
17.
Op. cit. [5].
18.
BoxG. E. P. and TiaoG. C., “Intervention analysis with applications to economic and environmental problems,” Journal of the American Statistical Association, March, 1970, pp. 70–74.
