Outdoor Lighting and Crime - Amper

FIGURE 6. VARIATION OF CRIME WITH AMBIENT LIGHT
Figure 6. Notional curves for the variation of crime with ambient light. Line A indicates the
illuminance range in which lighting and crime experiments are usually performed. The
illuminance from a full moon would be a little to the right of –1 on the horizontal axis. Line
B represents a 3.375 times increase in light as a typical treatment in experiments. Curve C
represents the situation in which crime increases as the ambient light becomes dimmer, as is
widely (and wrongly) believed. Line D represents the case where crime is completely
independent of ambient light. Curve E is the simplest form of variation implied by the
observations of low crime values in blackouts. Curve F is an attempt to reconcile conflicting
claims about the form of variation of crime with ambient light.
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