outdoor lighting and crime, part 1 - Astronomical Society of Victoria

3 OVERVIEW OF LIGHT AND CRIME STUDIES
There is too much literature on the subject for a complete survey here, and reliance has
been placed on some existing reviews. Present views on the subject are polarised. Particular
studies have been selected for mention to indicate why, and to facilitate resolution. Nearly all
of the available material is from the USA and the UK. Useful formal studies have presumably
been done in other countries but few indications of this were found in Internet searches or
scans of reference lists in papers cited in this work. A more thorough search of the literature
including eight large bibliographic databases by Farrington and Welsh (2002a,b) [34, 35]
produced a more extensive collection, but again mostly of UK and USA origin.
A standard convention is followed in this document. If an increase in light is accompanied
by an increase in crime, a positive correlation, it is called a positive association or
effect, naturally. This possibility is not often mentioned in the crime prevention literature
but if it is, it tends to be called a negative effect. To follow that usage here would be to
perpetuate confusion. Increased crime accompanying increased light is therefore a positive
association. A decrease in light accompanied by a decrease in crime is a positive association
also. Increased light and decreased crime is a negative or inverse association, and so is decreased
light and increased crime. Useful or beneficial effects are unambiguous – they mean
a reduction of crime in any circumstances.
3.1 RESULTS FROM THE USA
The National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice of the US Department
of Justice presented a thorough study of sixty street lighting projects to the US Congress
in February 1977 (Tien, O’Donnell, Barnet, Mirchandani and Pitu 1977 [107], IDA IS63
1998 [51]). The abstract states, in part:
“In particular, while there is no statistically significant evidence that street lighting
impacts the level of crime, especially if crime displacement is taken into
account, there is a strong indication that increased lighting – perhaps lighting
uniformity – decreases the fear of crime.”
Twenty years later, the National Institute of Justice of the US Department of Justice
presented an even more comprehensive report (Sherman, Gottfredson, MacKenzie, Eck,
Reuter and Bushway 1997 [102]) on crime prevention to the US Congress in February 1997.
The following quotes are from ‘Conclusions for Open Urban Places’ in Chapter 7 by Eck
(1997) [31]:
“Not much has changed since Tien and his colleagues (1979) [?] gave their
critical assessment of the impact of lighting on crime.”
“We may speculate that lighting is effective in some places, ineffective in others,
and counter productive in still other circumstances.”
“Consider lighting at outside ATM machines, for example. An ATM user might
feel safer when the ATM and its immediate surrounding area are well lit. However,
this same lighting makes the patron more visible to passing offenders. Who
the lighting serves is unclear.”
8