IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i20p13065-d939211.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Crime and Building Rehabilitation or Demolition: A Dose-Response Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Colette Smirniotis

    (Violence Prevention Research Program, Department of Emergency Medicine, School of Medicine, University of California at Davis, Sacramento, CA 95817, USA
    California Firearm Violence Research Center, Sacramento, CA 95817, USA)

  • Michael Henderson

    (Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development, Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA)

  • Barbara A. Bailey

    (Department of Mathematics and Statistics, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182, USA)

  • Rose M. C. Kagawa

    (Violence Prevention Research Program, Department of Emergency Medicine, School of Medicine, University of California at Davis, Sacramento, CA 95817, USA
    California Firearm Violence Research Center, Sacramento, CA 95817, USA)

Abstract

Thousands of buildings in Cleveland, Ohio were demolished or rehabilitated since the Great Recession in the 2000s. Recent evidence suggests removing vacant and decaying buildings reduces violent and firearm-involved crime. This study examines the dose-response relationship between demolitions, rehabilitations, and crime. We use Bayesian spatiotemporal models to estimate the association of interest for five types of crime outcomes: violent crimes, violent crimes involving a firearm, drug crimes, and crimes often associated with building vacancy. We estimate associations in quarterly time periods from 2012 through 2017 in 569 hexagons approximately the size of a neighborhood (2000 feet, approximately 610 m, in diameter), stratified by vacancy level. Across vacancy levels, the majority of our models do not identify statistically significant associations between demolition and rehabilitation dose and crime incidence. However, in some cases, we identify positive associations between demolition and crime. These associations generally appeared at higher levels of demolition (2 or 3 or more demolitions) in areas characterized by medium to high levels of vacancy. We also find that the presence of a property rehabilitation is associated with an increase in drug crimes in areas with medium levels of vacancy.

Suggested Citation

  • Colette Smirniotis & Michael Henderson & Barbara A. Bailey & Rose M. C. Kagawa, 2022. "Crime and Building Rehabilitation or Demolition: A Dose-Response Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-19, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:20:p:13065-:d:939211
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/20/13065/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/20/13065/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. A. Foell & K. A. Pitzer, 2020. "Geographically Targeted Place-Based Community Development Interventions: A Systematic Review and Examination of Studies’ Methodological Rigor," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(5), pages 741-765, September.
    2. Gary S. Becker, 1974. "Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach," NBER Chapters, in: Essays in the Economics of Crime and Punishment, pages 1-54, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Christina Plerhoples Stacy, 2018. "The effect of vacant building demolitions on crime under depopulation," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(1), pages 100-115, January.
    4. Spader, Jonathan & Schuetz, Jenny & Cortes, Alvaro, 2016. "Fewer vacants, fewer crimes? Impacts of neighborhood revitalization policies on crime," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 73-84.
    5. George Galster & Christopher Walker & Christopher Hayes & Patrick Boxall & Jennifer Johnson, 2004. "Measuring the impact of community development block grant spending on urban neighborhoods," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(4), pages 903-934.
    6. Larson, Matthew & Xu, Yanqing & Ouellet, Leah & Klahm, Charles F., 2019. "Exploring the impact of 9398 demolitions on neighborhood-level crime in Detroit, Michigan," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 57-63.
    7. Branas, C.C. & Kondo, M.C. & Murphy, S.M. & South, E.C. & Polsky, D. & MacDonald, J.M., 2016. "Urban blight remediation as a cost-beneficial solution to firearm violence," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 106(12), pages 2158-2164.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Larson, Matthew & Xu, Yanqing & Ouellet, Leah & Klahm, Charles F., 2019. "Exploring the impact of 9398 demolitions on neighborhood-level crime in Detroit, Michigan," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 57-63.
    2. Schuetz, Jenny & Spader, Jonathan & Cortes, Alvaro, 2016. "Have distressed neighborhoods recovered? Evidence from the neighborhood stabilization program," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 30-48.
    3. Michelle Kondo & Michelle Degli Esposti & Jonathan Jay & Christopher N. Morrison & Bridget Freisthler & Claire Jones & Jingzhen Yang & Deena Chisolm & Charles Branas & Bernadette Hohl, 2022. "Changes in crime surrounding an urban home renovation and rebuild programme," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(5), pages 1011-1030, April.
    4. Borges Ferreira Neto, Amir & Nowicki, Jennifer & Shakya, Shishir, 2021. "Do Public Libraries Help Mitigate Crime? Evidence from Kansas City, MO," MPRA Paper 111073, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. van Ours, Jan C. & Williams, Jenny & Ward, Shannon, 2015. "Bad Behavior: Delinquency, Arrest and Early School Leaving," CEPR Discussion Papers 10755, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Khalil, Umair, 2017. "Do more guns lead to more crime? Understanding the role of illegal firearms," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 342-361.
    7. Patrick Arni & Rafael Lalive & Jan C. Van Ours, 2013. "How Effective Are Unemployment Benefit Sanctions? Looking Beyond Unemployment Exit," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(7), pages 1153-1178, November.
    8. Dennis L. Gärtner, 2022. "Corporate Leniency in a Dynamic World: The Preemptive Push of an Uncertain Future," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 70(1), pages 119-146, March.
    9. Deborah A. Cobb-Clark & Chris Ryan & Ana Sartbayeva, 2009. "Taking Chances: The Effect of Growing Up on Welfare on the Risky Behaviour of Young People," CEPR Discussion Papers 604, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    10. Antonio Acconcia & Marcello D'Amato & Riccardo Martina, 2003. "Corruption and Tax Evasion with Competitive Bribes," CSEF Working Papers 112, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.
    11. J. K. Pappalardo, 2022. "Economics of Consumer Protection: Contributions and Challenges in Estimating Consumer Injury and Evaluating Consumer Protection Policy," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 45(2), pages 201-238, June.
    12. M. Martin Boyer, 2007. "Resistance (to Fraud) Is Futile," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 74(2), pages 461-492, June.
    13. David Cayla, 2021. "Le « vivre-ensemble » face au projet néolibéral," Post-Print hal-02961194, HAL.
    14. Gary Bolton & Eugen Dimant & Ulrich Schmidt, 2018. "When a Nudge Backfires. Using Observation with Social and Economic Incentives to Promote Pro-Social Behavior," PPE Working Papers 0017, Philosophy, Politics and Economics, University of Pennsylvania.
    15. Dwenger, Nadja & Kleven, Henrik & Rasul, Imran & Rincke, Johannes, 2014. "Extrinsic vs Intrinsic Motivations for Tax Compliance. Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment in Germany," VfS Annual Conference 2014 (Hamburg): Evidence-based Economic Policy 100389, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    16. Daron Acemoglu & Matthew O. Jackson, 2017. "Social Norms and the Enforcement of Laws," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 15(2), pages 245-295.
    17. Hahn Robert, 2010. "Designing Smarter Regulation with Improved Benefit-Cost Analysis," Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, De Gruyter, vol. 1(1), pages 1-19, July.
    18. Kerri Brick & Martine Visser & Justine Burns, 2012. "Risk Aversion: Experimental Evidence from South African Fishing Communities," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 94(1), pages 133-152.
    19. Entorf, Horst & Spengler, Hannes, 2000. "Socioeconomic and demographic factors of crime in Germany: Evidence from panel data of the German states," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 75-106, March.
    20. Fábio Pereira Silva & Reinaldo Guerreiro & Eduardo Flores, 2019. "Voluntary versus enforced tax compliance: the slippery slope framework in the Brazilian context," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 66(2), pages 147-180, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:20:p:13065-:d:939211. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.