Effects of Improved Street Lighting on Crime
Effects of Improved Street Lighting on Crime
复制标题
改善街道照明对犯罪的影响
DOI：
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发表时间：
2008
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
George Mason
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Brandon P. Welsh;David C. Farrington;David B. Wilson;George Mason
改进的街道照明有许多功能，在公共和私人环境中都有使用。预防公共空间的人身和财产犯罪是其目标之一，也是本文的重点。有两种主要理论可以解释为什么改善街道照明可以减少犯罪。第一项研究表明，改善照明可以加强对潜在违法者的监视（通过提高能见度和增加街道上的人数），从而增强对潜在违法者的威慑。第二种观点认为，改善照明标志着社区对该地区的投资，表明该地区正在改善，从而增加了社区自豪感、社区凝聚力和非正式的社会控制。第一种理论预测犯罪率会下降，尤其是在夜间，而第二种理论预测白天和夜间犯罪率都会下降。这项审查的结果表明，改善街道照明可以显著减少犯罪。这为继续使用改进的街道照明提供了支持，以防止公共场所的犯罪。
Improved street lighting serves many functions and is used in both public and private settings. The prevention of personal and property crime is one of its objectives in public space, which is the main focus of this review. There are two main theories of why improved street lighting may cause a reduction in crime. The first suggests that improved lighting leads to increased surveillance of potential offenders (both by improving visibility and by increasing the number of people on the street) and hence to increased deterrence of potential offenders. The second suggests that improved lighting signals community investment in the area and that the area is improving, leading to increased community pride, community cohesiveness, and informal social control. The first theory predicts decreases in crime especially during the hours of darkness, while the second theory predicts decreases in crime during both daytime and nighttime. Results of this review indicate that improved street lighting significantly reduces crime. This lends support for the continued use of improved street lighting to prevent crime in public space.
The review also found that nighttime crimes did not decrease more than daytime crimes. This suggests that a theory of street lighting focusing on its role in increasing community pride and informal social control may be more plausible than a theory focusing on increased surveillance and increased deterrence. Future research should be designed to test the main theories of the effects of improved street lighting more explicitly, and future lighting schemes should employ high quality evaluation designs with long-term followups.