The presence of the dark can make a difference, due to the frequency of certain crimes. But much depends on the area in which you live, and the type of offense.
It’s not just a way of saying: The crimes take place Really, more often, with the favor of darkness. A study in the United Kingdom analyzed the frequency of various types of crimes to try to understand if the presence of the darkness favored its occurrence. And in fact it is so, even if the risk varies very much based on the types of crimes and the area in which you live. The research, which could suggest strategies for improve safety in the evening hourswas published on Plos One.
Real or perceived safety
The common experience and previous studies suggest that little enlightened roads increase the sense of insecurity, and on the contrary that good lighting contributes to making you feel more peaceful when it is now dark. It was not clear, however, if the darkness had effect also on the real frequency of crimes and not only on the perception of absence of individual risk.
A group of scientists from the University of Sheffield analyzed The data on over 34,600 crimes between 2010 and 2019 In the Southern Yorkshire region, in the United Kingdom. In particular, the attention focused on the crimes committed in times of the day that during the summer are still characterized by the light, and in the winter months by the dark. This allowed researchers to understand if, on the same type of crime, the presence or absence of light had some influence.
More crimes with darkness (but which ones?)
Even after having taken into consideration possible confontible factors, such as the presence of a period of holidays or the weather, it was found more likely that the crimes were committed in the dark hours. However, on 14 types of crimes analyzed, only five They were found significantly increasing with darkness, namely: thefts with burglary, robberies, vandalism, bicycles thefts and vehicle damage. In other cases, such as heated, arsoned fires and sexual crimesthis type of association has not been seen.
In addition, the risk of crimes from hours of light to dark hours had not increased everywhere in a uniform way: Much depended on the neighborhood in which it was.
Are more enlightened roads safer?
Even if the study did not consider the effect of road lighting on the risk of crimes, however, it seems the incidence of certain types of crimes. The discovery could therefore motivate more specific research on the potential cleansing effect on the crimes of cities illuminated with greater intelligence, keeping in mind both this aspect and the delicate theme of light pollution.
