Outdoor Lighting and Crime - Amper

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7.7.4 Lighting practices and the environment Critics might object that environmental aspects of lighting are right off the track of the lighting, commerce and crime issue. It is not so, however, as interacting aspects of a complex system cannot properly be treated in isolation. Changes in outdoor lighting to improve some particular function inevitably affect many other functions. For example, reducing glare as a means of allaying the fear of crime would also improve the amenity both of the lit and nearby unlit areas. Furthermore, unfortunate people with significantly reduced vision 101 would often be able to see better than is usually the case at present. In particular, they would be better able to make use of the available light in observation of strangers’ faces at night. 102 It would also improve their mobility safety by improving the visibility of obstacles and pavement irregularities. Some kinds of outdoor lighting should be done away with completely. Tree, shrub and garden lighting in general is often done at least partly for crime prevention, a reason that is no longer tenable. The landscape lighting industry could well do the world a service by quietly disappearing in toto. Schools of architecture, urban design, engineering and fine art should ensure that all of their library books on landscape, architectural, structural and monumental floodlighting carry a notice about the adverse effects of these practices. 7.7.5 Searchlights and laser displays When searchlights and laser beam displays are operated outdoors, it is generally as a means to attract people for some commercial reason (ILDA 2002). This is hardly any different from the main function of bright lighting used to attract people to downtown areas, fast food outlets, suburban shopping malls, theme parks and the like. Now it can be seen that ‘people magnets’ such as skybeams and outdoor laser displays are likely to contribute to the indirect effect of light in increasing crime. Unlike conventional outdoor lighting, skybeams and lasers do not have mobility safety, traffic safety and wayfinding functions. Their commercial use is entirely non-essential. For some individuals, skybeams also recall the use of searchlights during the horror of bombing raids during World War 2, and also an event that helped set the stage for that war: the ‘Oath under the cathedral of light’ at the Nazi Party rally at Nuremberg in 1936 (Bytwerk 1998). There is already an environmental case (Cinzano 2000e) for a permanent ban on all commercial, advertising, celebratory, memorial 103 and fund-raising 101 Subnormal vision generally involves one or more of the following: visual field losses, reduced visual acuity, reduced contrast sensitivity, acquired losses in colour perception, or reduced sensitivity to low light levels. Depending on definitions, as much as 10% of the population has subnormal vision. Reduced vision and increased sensitivity to glare are symptoms of cataract and other conditions. About 6% of Australians aged over 50 will require cataract surgery within 5 years (Pincock 2003). 102 A contrary argument, also applicable to existing illumination standards based on face recognition distances, is that face observation also helps criminals to select victims. 103 The memorial twin light-pillar display used at the site of the destroyed World Trade Centre in New York City was operated for a limited number of weeks and curfewed at 11 pm on advice from the city’s Audubon Society about bird migration (Harder 2002). Other good advice not to do it at all went unheeded. 117
outdoor use of searchlights, skybeams and outdoor laser beam displays. The present findings bolster the case for such a ban. The use of conventional light beams and visible laser beams in the atmosphere for genuine scientific, engineering and navigation purposes does not generally have a ‘people-magnet effect’. As it is therefore unlikely to represent any significant pro-crime threat it should be allowed to continue unhindered. Any misuse of such a provision for commercial purposes would need to be treated harshly. 7.7.6 Control of outdoor lighting Many precedents already exist for mandatory control of outdoor lighting. Numerous complete texts of national, state, county and town lighting laws, ordinances and regulations are readily accessible on the Internet (eg IDA 2002a). The International Dark-Sky Association’s pattern regulations (IDA 2002b) provide a starting point for local and state authorities considering compilation of their own regulations, although the present work is likely to raise the need for changes. An outdoor lighting system should: • put the available light where it is needed for mobility safety, wayfinding and traffic safety, with minimum spill elsewhere, • be no brighter than necessary, • avoid glare and light pollution, • minimise non-uniformity of illumination, • contribute to keeping fear of crime at acceptably low levels, and • minimise adverse known significant environmental, health, safety and crime effects. These requirements effectively redefine what is meant by ‘good lighting’. The specific details of how such good lighting can be realised in practice are not yet set, but clearly they will tend to be adaptations of existing practices. Nothing more than minimal interference to good lighting should be tolerated from illuminated advertising and commercial displays, which themselves must be treated as part of the whole system and required to comply fully with the dot points above. Immediately applicable results of both parts of his work are that even severe environmental constraints can be applied to outdoor lighting in the knowledge that the incidence of crime is most unlikely to become worse as a consequence. It would make no sense for a city with an ocean port or harbour to have severe constraints on outdoor lighting if international cruise ships can continue to come and go with their typically excessive external lighting in operation. Ships should be subject to lighting controls while in national waters, just as they are subject to controls on dumping oil waste and water ballast. 7.7.7 Compliance with energy and luminous flux limits Compliance with national and regional limits for lighting energy use and luminous flux decrees is likely to be an ongoing issue. In the case of individual properties, energy audits and photometric surveys can provide quantitative data, albeit at a cost that some property 118
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OUTDOOR LIGHTING AND CRIME, PART 2:
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The new hypothesis suggests that pr
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ABBREVIATIONS, CONTRACTIONS AND GLO
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ns not significant NSW New South Wa
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4.2.2.1 A graphical approach.......
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9.12 SKYBEAMS AND LASER DISPLAYS...
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If there is some substance to the b
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2. GROWTH IN LIGHTING AND IN CRIME
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e at risk when community and enviro
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A decade of satellite measurements
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2000). Regardless, there are often
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Intent in two of the source documen
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Unlike the situation in England and
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proportional to the amount of outdo
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Zealand (Not shown in figures) Popu
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the crime is much less feared by mo
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“We are not aware of any school d
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The Auckland central business distr
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Italian regions and in Czechia will
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summer’s worst heat wave and in t
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For 1977-07-04: End of Civil Twilig
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which unreasonably disturbs the sle
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4. MAKING SENSE OF THE EVIDENCE 4.1
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much as 60 % of the emitted light a
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Marchant (2003) pointed out that th
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level will be linked to clock time
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Curve E is the simplest form of var
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night, plus the relative change ove
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• spatial extent also ranging fro
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Crime tends to increase as a reacti
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Causal Variable TABLE 2. Apparent S
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unreliable, and funding for further
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What would be helpful now would be
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5. THE HYPOTHESIS AND FURTHER EVIDE
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Isobe 2003) with the same observati
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TABLE 3. World Cities: Upward Light
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TDU = 0.15 S + 0.5 A + 0.1 V. The t
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necessary but not sufficient condit
Page 77 and 78: TABLE 6. Population, Crime and Upwa
Page 79 and 80: On the assumption that roads and pa
Page 81 and 82: eliably positive slope with data un
Page 83 and 84: 5.2.3.7 Summary and discussion of r
Page 85 and 86: eflectance have changed the relativ
Page 87 and 88: Country TABLE 8. Crime Rate and Upw
Page 89 and 90: 5.3 DISCUSSION OF THE CRIME AND LIG
Page 91 and 92: eventually in overall crime rates i
Page 93 and 94: objectionably large reduction, part
Page 95 and 96: no reason to suppose that ambient l
Page 97 and 98: oads were lit adequately for pedest
Page 99 and 100: Because of concern about the upward
Page 101 and 102: that major cross streets occur at i
Page 103 and 104: Overall, the tests indicate that dr
Page 105 and 106: TABLE 11. Drugs Crime and Light at
Page 107 and 108: 6. ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS 6.1 ADVERS
Page 109 and 110: 1999). Year-round summer-length dur
Page 111 and 112: yet ratified under the Kyoto Protoc
Page 113 and 114: One further problem needs to be rai
Page 115 and 116: Even with adequate notice it might
Page 117 and 118: markedly greater if there is substa
Page 119 and 120: at night, not only dim light but lo
Page 121 and 122: A Technical Report on the topic (IL
Page 123 and 124: ambient light. Commercial competiti
Page 125 and 126: with lighting for an aging populati
Page 127: If excessive lighting and lighting
Page 131 and 132: If funds are available for crime pr
Page 133 and 134: the first place now have to accept
Page 135 and 136: installation and usage of artificia
Page 137 and 138: Section 5.2.2 needs to be replaced
Page 139 and 140: 8.5 ANOTHER VIEW There is an extens
Page 141 and 142: 9. CONCLUSIONS Crime appears to be
Page 143 and 144: There appears to be no compelling e
Page 145 and 146: account for the strong positive cor
Page 147 and 148: aimed lighting used for advertising
Page 149 and 150: 10. RECOMMENDATIONS The following r
Page 151 and 152: c. Support competent investigations
Page 153 and 154: 14. REFERENCES Notes following refe
Page 155 and 156: BJS (2002a) Key crime and justice f
Page 157 and 158: http://dipastro.pd.astro.it/cinzano
Page 159 and 160: Dawson, D. and Reid, K. (1997) Fati
Page 161 and 162: Fennelly, L. J. (1996) Security sur
Page 163 and 164: Harder, B. (2002) Deprived of darkn
Page 165 and 166: IDA IS35 (1997) Billboards. Informa
Page 167 and 168: Klein, A. G., Hall, D. K. and Nolin
Page 169 and 170: Martinez-Papponi, B. L. (2000) Scie
Page 171 and 172: NBI (2002) Integrated Energy System
Page 173 and 174: Pearce, F. (1995) Declaring a curfe
Page 175 and 176: in the Nurses’ Health Study. Jour
Page 177 and 178: UNESCAP (2002) Developments in the
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FIGURES FIGURE 1. SKYGLOW AND CRIME
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FIGURE 3. SKYGLOW AND CRIME IN USA
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PERCENT FIGURE 5. USA BURGLARIES BY
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UCR CRIME RATE % FIGURE 7. UCR CRIM
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FIGURE 9. UCR CRIME AND UPWARD LIGH
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FIGURE 11. CRIME RATE AND UPWARD LI
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FIGURE 13. CRIME AND UPWARD LIGHT E
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Log 10 (ILLUMINANCE, lux) FIGURE 15
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