Rice Univesrity Logo
    • FAQ
    • Deposit your work
    • Login
    View Item 
    •   Rice Scholarship Home
    • Faculty & Staff Research
    • The Kinder Institute for Urban Research
    • Kinder Institute Reports and Presentations
    • View Item
    •   Rice Scholarship Home
    • Faculty & Staff Research
    • The Kinder Institute for Urban Research
    • Kinder Institute Reports and Presentations
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    What Happens in the Shadows: Streetlights and How They Relate to Crime

    Thumbnail
    Name:
    KI_2017_Streetlights-Crime.pdf
    Size:
    4.652Mb
    Format:
    PDF
    View/Open
    Author
    O'Connell, Heather
    Date
    2017
    Abstract
    After finding in a previous report, “Streetlights in the City: Understanding the Distribution of Houston Streetlights,” that the city of Houston’s more than 173,000 streetlights were not evenly distributed throughout the city, this next report answers the question: do places with more streetlights have lower crime rates? The findings complicate the common perception that more streetlights lead to fewer crimes. While there was some evidence that a particularly high density of streetlights can provide protective benefits, excluding those extremes provides a much muddier picture, suggesting that crime is a reflection of other neighborhood contexts. As such, cities should be cautious in expecting direct reductions in crime with the introduction of more streetlights.
    Description
    Houston has more than 173,000 streetlights across the city, and those are just the ones maintained by CenterPoint Energy. In conversations about public safety, people often point to streetlights as a possible way to deter crime. But in what CityLab called a “seemingly endless debate,” the evidence is mixed. This report confirms that, in Houston, more streetlights don’t necessarily mean less crime.
    Citation
    O'Connell, Heather. "What Happens in the Shadows: Streetlights and How They Relate to Crime." (2017) Rice University Kinder Institute for Urban Research: https://doi.org/10.25611/41qx-u9sm.
    Published Version
    https://doi.org/10.25611/41qx-u9sm
    Type
    Report
    Publisher
    Rice University Kinder Institute for Urban Research
    Citable link to this page
    https://hdl.handle.net/1911/105218
    Rights
    Copyright ᄅ2017 by Rice University Kinder Institute for Urban Research. All rights reserved.
    Link to related resources
    https://kinder.rice.edu/research/what-happens-shadows-streetlights-and-how-they-relate-crime
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Collections
    • Kinder Institute Reports and Presentations [55]

    Home | FAQ | Contact Us | Privacy Notice
    Managed by the Digital Scholarship Services at Fondren Library, Rice University
    Physical Address: 6100 Main Street, Houston, Texas 77005
    Mailing Address: MS-44, P.O.BOX 1892, Houston, Texas 77251-1892
     

     

    Searching scope

    Browse

    Entire ArchiveCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsTypeThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsType

    My Account

    Login

    Statistics

    View Usage Statistics

    Home | FAQ | Contact Us | Privacy Notice
    Managed by the Digital Scholarship Services at Fondren Library, Rice University
    Physical Address: 6100 Main Street, Houston, Texas 77005
    Mailing Address: MS-44, P.O.BOX 1892, Houston, Texas 77251-1892