Research Shows Green Spaces Decrease Violent Crime

The results are even more impressive when community members take part in creating and maintaining them

Hiya!

There is a small scrap of land a few blocks away, nestled between two houses. It was neglected for a long time and grew wild except for a dirt path trodden by locals who used it as a shortcut while walking their dogs. Then, a few years ago, during lockdown, I think, a group of people in the community transformed the wasted space into a community garden and play area for children.

Since then, more public green spaces have appeared, and it seems my area is just one of many communities increasing local greenspaces. Further, research shows these greenspaces do more than just make us take pride in our communities — they also measurably decrease the rate of violent crimes.

Flint, Michigan

Before the water crisis in 2014 that grabbed national attention, Flint, Michigan, was known for its violent crime rate. According to data from the FBI, the Flint Police Department reported 2,774 violent crimes in 2012 — but only 985 were reported in 2022.

So, what’s behind such a substantial drop in violent crime rates? Multiple things, but a big one was the creation of Genesee County Land Bank’s Clean & Green program.

The program’s purpose is to support “innovative community groups and organizations in the cleaning, maintaining, and beautifying of otherwise vacant properties in Genesee County.” Their website lists several accomplishments by the program between its start in 2004 until 2022, including:

• “Over 8,200 area residents are estimated to have participated in Clean & Green, including more than 3,575 total area youth and more than 1,550 employed area youth.

• The Land Bank has invested more than $5.8 million directly into community-based organizations through Clean & Green.

• Clean & Green groups have completed over 275,000 vacant property mowing, valued at $13.7 million.

• Nearly 600 vacant houses have been decoratively boarded by Clean & Green groups.”

Researchers are keen to study the Clean & Green program and other similar ones to learn more about the effects they have on their communities.

An exceptionally dedicated researcher is Marc A. Zimmerman, a professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health who also works as co-director of the Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention and is the principal investigator and director of the Michigan Youth Violence Prevention Center.

In 2018, Zimmerman and his colleagues published a study in the American Journal of Community Psychology. They compared streets in Flint where community members with Clean & Green maintained vacant lots to streets with vacant lots that were left alone for five years, between 2009 and 2013. They discovered the maintained lots had nearly 40 percent fewer violent crimes and assaults.

More recently, in 2023, Zimmerman and colleagues published another study. This one occurred in Flint between 2015 and 2018 and compared violent crime rates between areas where vacant properties are owned and managed by land banks and those not owned by land banks.

(If you don’t know, a land bank is a public authority created to acquire, hold, manage, and develop abandoned, dilapidated, and other properties. They are used to turn these wasted properties into productive community areas.)

The researchers found that areas owned and managed by land banks had fewer firearm crimes, violent crimes, serious crimes, and less crime involving youth victims than those not owned by land banks. I’ll discuss these studies more later on, but Flint isn’t the only area implementing greening programs.