Outdoor Lighting and Crime - Amper

City and
State/Territory
Population,
thousands
Crime Rate %
Annual Upward
Light Energy Loss
per Unit Area,
MW.h/km2
Melbourne, Vic 3 466 10.48 3.82
Perth, WA 1 381 14.78 3.65
Sydney, NSW 4 086 16.74 3.48
Brisbane, Qld 1 627 13.23 2.98
Adelaide, SA 1 096 21.5 2.85
Newcastle, NSW 483 19.15 2.69
Canberra, ACT 350 6.81 2.27
Gold Coast, Qld 404 15.3 1.77
Population data are either from ABS (2003) or from the crime data sources, ACT
(2002a,b), BOCSAR (2002), OCS (2002), OESR (2002), Vicpol (2002a,b), and
WAPS (2002). Light energy loss per unit area measures are by satellite (Isobe and
Hamamura 1998). The crime and light energy loss data are plotted in Figure 14.
Regretably, the homogeneity of the crime data used is quite deficient. Individual states have
idiosyncratic differences in their criminal justice systems. States are free to agree on
publication of crime statistics with a common basis but apparently this has not yet been
achieved. 65 Much effort went into trying to assemble a crime data set for areas that
approximated the areas given for the DMSP data. In the case of Sydney, for example, this
required removal of crime and population data for the outermost ring of local government
areas, most of which are rural. The Sydney and Newcastle data included speeding offences
but data for the remaining cities apparently did not. Other problems were lack of information
on the area covered, and police districts that did not match the city shape and extended well
beyond the city limits. As far as could be ascertained, the data periods for some of the cities
were calendar years, and for others, financial years. The years chosen were the earliest for
which data were readily available in each case. It would have been easy in some cases to
manipulate the figures up or down by choice of areas or choice of crimes for inclusion or
exclusion.
Given these problems, the scatter in Figure 14 is hardly surprising. Crime prevention research
is hampered by such poor data. The small number of cities with light energy loss measures
was a further handicap.
65 No major agencies or departments of the Australian Government facilitate the collection or
integration of national crime data. This has led researchers to make statements such as “This
certainly makes research and analysis of crime somewhat challenging” (Murray, McGuffog,
Western and Mullins 2001).
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