Measuring the Effects of Built Environment on Bus Stop Crime

There has been considerable interest in recent decades for the identification of the physical correlates of crime in different urban settings. This study focuses on bus stop crime and seeks to understand how different environmental attributes in the vicinity of a bus stop can affect the incidence of crime. We first review evidence from the relevant literature to understand the impacts of built environment on crime. This is followed by the presentation of our empirical research. We have used a stratified random sample of 60 bus stops in downtown Los Angeles to examine the effects of environmental and land use attributes on crime per capita. Using descriptive statistics, correlations, regression and discriminant analyses, and matched pair analysis the study finds some relations between the existence or absence of certain environmental attributes and the incidence of crime.