Reducing Crime Through Environmental Design: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment of Street Lighting in New York City

Citation: Aaron Chalfin, Benjamin Hansen, Jason Lerner, Lucie Parker Reducing Crime Through Environmental Design: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment of Street Lighting in New York City.
DOI (original publisher): 10.3386/w25798
Semantic Scholar (metadata): 10.3386/w25798
Sci-Hub (fulltext): 10.3386/w25798
Internet Archive Scholar (search for fulltext): Reducing Crime Through Environmental Design: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment of Street Lighting in New York City
Wikidata (metadata): Q63543606
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Summary

In a partnership with NYC authors randomly allocated temporary streetlights to public housing developments from March-August 2016. Find after accounting for potential spatial spillovers that the provision of street lights led, at a minimum, to a 36% reduction in nighttime outdoor index crimes.

Despite interest in streetlights primarily from criminologists, this is the first RCT on the topic. The best previous non-RCT review showed a possible 27% reduction in crime, and a previous study on daylight savings time indicated a decrease in crime due to longer sunlight in evening hours.

From a cost/benefit perspective, increased lighting indicated by the RCT could contribute a 4% decrease in overall index crimes (many occur during daytime or indoors), similar to what might be achieved with a 10% increase in police headcount, and possibly with benefit 4x costs.