CRIME QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE

Does lighting reduce crime?

Information on lighting and crime in the United States
from authoritative sources:

U.S. Department of Justice - FBI press release for the 1995 FBI Uniform Crime Report http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr95prs.htm. Go to the section titled Burglary. It says 52% of burglaries happen during daylight hours. This percentage reflects the portion of burglaries occurring in daylight out of all burglaries where the time of occurrence is known. The report can be downloaded at http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/crimeus/crimeus.htm. The table on page 205 shows a total of 2,136,000 burglaries. The total committed at night is 745,000, only 35% of all burglaries, the difference being 568,000 burglaries committed at an unknown time. So 35% of all burglaries are reported to have occurred at night.

U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Characteristics of Crime Report http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/cvict_c.htm#findings. It says 54% of violent crime in U.S. occurs from 6am to 6pm. It says 80% of rapes do not involve unknown assailants attacking victims at night. (67% of rapes occur at night, but in only 30% of all rapes the attacker was unknown by the victim -- 67% x 30% = 20% 100% - 20% = 80%.)

Three important crime studies:

The Influence of Street Lighting on Crime and the Fear of Crime, from the Home Office, a British Government agency. http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/policerspubs1.html Report no. 28. Also see report no. 29.

Preventing Crime: What Works, What Doesn't, What's Promising -- A Report to the U.S. Congress http://www.ncjrs.org/works/index.htm This lengthy report has several references to lighting and crime which indicate that lighting's effect on crime is inconclusive. See chapter seven. These statements are contained in its conclusions:

"We can have very little confidence that improved lighting prevents crime, particularly since we do not know if offenders use lighting to their advantage. In the absence of better theories about when and where lighting can be effective, and rigorous evaluations of plausible lighting interventions, we cannot make any scientific assertions regarding the effectiveness of lighting. In short, the effectiveness of lighting is unknown."

U.S. Department of Justice Study of Street Lighting and Crime -- IDA Information Sheet No. 63 http://www.darksky.org/ida/ida_2/info63.html

Blackouts and Crime -- On March 8, 1998 an Associated Press article appeared in many major U.S. newspapers about a power blackout that had been affecting New Zealand's largest city, Auckland, since February 20th. The first three sentences stated:

"Even criminals have deserted the darkened streets of downtown Auckland, where two weeks of power blackouts have made elevators risky, spoiled food and frustrated residents. 'It's been almost a crime free zone,' Inspector John Mitchell said Saturday. 'The normal level of muggings, violence, fights, burglary and robbery have just not happened." (The remainder of the story deals with other effects of the blackout.)

WHAT TYPE OF OUTDOOR LIGHTING PROVIDES THE BEST SECURITY FROM CRIME?

The outdoor lighting most likely to help keep us secure from crime is lighting that provides us with the best vision, not glaring, extremely bright lighting. Downward directed, shielded lighting of moderate brightness provides us with the best vision possible with outdoor lighting.

The Indiana Council on Outdoor Lighting Education, ICOLE
P.O. Box 17351
Indianapolis, IN 46217
http://icole.home.att.net

All material here is copyrighted by its authors as noted and can be used for non-commercial purposes to promote outdoor lighting education, providing proper credit is given.