Neighborhood Violence and Crime: Do Public Institutions Reduce Crime in Neighborhoods?

This paper explores the role of public institutions in reducing or fostering neighborhood violence and crime. Understanding institutional density as a neighborhood effect, this paper examines how ten public institutions and structures influence crime rates in Chicago. Using multivariate regression analysis and geo-coded spatial models, the relationship between the institutions and four different crime statistics (homicide, assault, robbery, and burglary) are analyzed. The findings show that the public institutions have very little impact on crime. Publicly owned vacant lots, however, exhibit a positive relationship with neighborhood crime. To address neighborhood crime, policy makers, urban planners, and residents should be conscious of how city space is used. Still, the question remains whether third variables (racial heterogeneity and socioeconomic factors) are significant factors influencing the relationship between institutions and crime.