ENVIRONMENT AND CRIME IN THE INNER CITY Does Vegetation Reduce Crime?

Although vegetation has been positively linked to fear of crime and crime in a number of settings, recent findings in urban residential areas have hinted at a possible negative relationship: Residents living in “greener” surroundings report lower levels of fear, fewer incivilities, and less aggressive and violent behavior. This study used police crime reports to examine the relationship between vegetation and crime in an inner-city neighborhood. Crime rates for 98 apartment buildings with varying levels of nearby vegetation were compared. Results indicate that although residents were randomly assigned to different levels of nearby vegetation, the greener a building’s surroundings were, the fewer crimes reported. Furthermore, this pattern held for both property crimes and violent crimes. The relationship of vegetation to crime held after the number of apartments per building, building height, vacancy rate, and number of occupied units per building were accounted for. The highway from one merchant town to another shall be cleared so that no cover for malefactors should be allowed for a width of two hundred feet on either side; landlords who do not effect this clearance will be answerable for robberies committed in consequence of their default, and in case of murder they will be in the king’s mercy. —Statute of Winchester of 1285, Chapter V, King Edward I 343 AUTHORS’ NOTE: A portion of these findings was presented in invited testimony to the National Urban and Community Forestry Advisory Council (NUCFAC). This ENVIRONMENT AND BEHAVIOR, Vol. 33 No. 3, May 2001 343-367 © 2001 Sage Publications, Inc. There is a long tradition of addressing crime in problem areas by removing vegetation. As early as 1285, the English King Edward I sought to reduce highway robbery by forcing property owners to clear highway edges of trees and shrubs (Pluncknett, 1960). Today, that tradition continues as park authorities, universities, and municipalities across North America engage in active programs to remove vegetation because it is thought to conceal and facilitate criminal acts (Michael & Hull, 1994; Nasar & Fisher, 1993; Weisel, Gouvis, & Harrell, 1994). One of the settings in which crime is of greatest concern today is the inner-city neighborhood. To combat crime in this setting, should vegetation be removed? This article suggests the opposite. We present theory and evidence to suggest that far from abetting crime, high-canopy trees and grass may actually work to deter crime in poor inner-city neighborhoods. COULD THERE BE EXCEPTIONS TO THE RULE? As a rule, the belief is that vegetation facilitates crime because it hides perpetrators and criminal activity from view. Here, we review the evidence in support of this “rule” and suggest conditions under which it might not apply. Although no studies to date have examined whether crime rates are actually higher in the presence of dense vegetation, a variety of evidence links dense vegetation with fear, fear of crime, and possibly crime itself. It is certainly the case that many people fear densely vegetated areas. In research on urban parks, densely wooded areas have consistently been associated with fear. In one study, safety ratings for 180 scenes of urban parks showed that individuals felt most vulnerable in densely forested areas and safest in open, mowed areas (Schroeder & Anderson, 1984). And in another study, individuals who were asked for their open-ended responses to photo344 ENVIRONMENT AND BEHAVIOR / May 2001 work was also supported by the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under Project No. ILLU-65-0387. Weare grateful for the assistance of many individuals and other institutions as well. John Potter and Liesette Brunson assisted in data entry and data analysis in the initial stages of this project. A reviewer’s suggestion substantially strengthened the analyses presented here. The Chicago Housing Authority and the management of Ida B. Wells were helpful in many ways, and the Chicago Police Department graciously gave us access to their year-end crime reports. Jerry Barrett helped produce the figures, and Helicopter Transport of Chicago donated the helicopter flight over Ida B. Wells. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Frances E. Kuo, HumanEnvironment Research Laboratory, University of Illinois, 1103 S. Dorner, Urbana, IL, 61801; e-mail: [email protected]. graphs of urban parks indicated that heavily vegetated areas seemed dangerous (Talbot & Kaplan, 1984). Although neither of these studies specifically probed fear of crime (as opposed to more general fear), it was clear that at least some participants had crime in mind; one respondent specifically suggested that weedy areas gave muggers good hiding places (Talbot & Kaplan, 1984). Dense vegetation has also been linked specifically to fear of crime. In safety ratings for 180 scenes of parking lots, the more a photo was covered by vegetation, the lower the perceived security (Shaffer & Anderson, 1985). And in research examining fear of crime on a university campus, dense understories that reduced views into areas where criminals might hide were associated with fear of crime (Nasar & Fisher, 1993). In these and other studies, view distance seems to be an important factor. Fear of crime is higher where vegetation blocks views (Fisher & Nasar, 1992; Kuo, Bacaicoa, & Sullivan, 1998; Michael & Hull, 1994). Not only has dense vegetation been linked to general fears and to fear of crime in particular, but two studies have pointed more directly at a facilitative role of vegetation in crime. In the first study, park managers and park police indicated that dense vegetation is regularly used by criminals to conceal their activities (Michael & Hull, 1994). In the second, burglars themselves lent support to this notion. In this study, automobile burglars described how they used dense vegetation in a variety of ways, including to conceal their selection of a target and their escape from the scene, to shield their examination of stolen goods, and finally, in the disposal of unwanted goods (Michael, Hull, & Zahm, 1999). At the same time, Michael and his coauthors made it clear that vegetation was neither necessary nor sufficient for a crime to take place. The clear theme in all these studies is that dense vegetation provides potential cover for criminal activities, possibly increasing the likelihood of crime and certainly increasing the fear of crime. Large shrubs, underbrush, and dense woods all substantially diminish visibility and therefore are capable of supporting criminal activity. But, not all vegetation blocks views. A well-maintained grassy area certainly does not block views; widely spaced, high-canopy trees have minimal effect on visibility; and flowers and low-growing shrubs seem unlikely to provide cover for criminal activities. We suggest that although the rule that vegetation aids crime may hold for visibility-decreasing forms of vegetation, there are systematic exceptions to this rule. To wit, we propose that widely spaced, high-canopy trees and other visibility-preserving forms of vegetation do not promote crime. Kuo, Sullivan / VEGETATION AND CRIME 345