Title: Land-Use Zoning Shown to Affect Crime Rates in Los Angeles | RAND
Headings: Land-Use Zoning Shown to Affect Crime Rates in Los Angeles
Land-Use Zoning Shown to Affect Crime Rates in Los Angeles
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Content: The results are published in the February edition of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. Researchers examined the relationship between land-use law, the built environment and crime using detailed block-level crime information from July 2010 to January 2011 and detailed observations about 205 blocks in eight relatively high-crime areas in Los Angeles. In addition, researchers conducted a separate analysis of the relationship between changes in land-use zoning and crime in all neighborhoods in Los Angeles from 1994 to 2010. The central finding of the study is that blocks in the study area that include both residential and commercial zoning uses experienced less crime than blocks that are zoned for primarily commercial purposes. Overall, crime was lowest on blocks zoned for residential-only uses, even in relatively high crime neighborhoods. Researchers say the finding suggests that efforts to reduce crime by introducing commercial activities in residential areas are probably misguided. The study also found that when neighborhoods throughout Los Angeles undergo some change in zoning, mostly toward residential uses, crime drops more than it does in neighborhoods with comparable crime trends before the zoning change. In these cases, crime dropped by about 7 percent on average, mostly as a result of fewer automobile-related property crimes. This finding is consistent with the apparent crime-reducing effects of residential development that was found in the first study, researchers say. “Our findings suggest that strategic decisions about zoning could be part of the overall crime prevention strategy in urban areas,” MacDonald said. “