The Impact of Urban Greenspace in Reducing Violent Crime: A Systematic Literature Review

Mardelle Shepley (Professor, Cornell University)

This Systematic Literature Review (SLR) on the intersection of urban greenspace and violent crime had three goals: First, to identify existing research on the subject, second, to identify gaps in the research and third, to identify the mechanisms associated with the impact of green space on violent crime reduction.

In addition to other health problems and disparities, the absence of greenspace in US cities may contribute to or exacerbate violent crime. On the flipside, the presence of greenspace may help to mitigate violent crime and ameliorate the stress of living in underserved neighborhoods. It is now widely accepted that visual and physical contact with nature have myriad benefits to human health and well-being. Literature indicates that people who live near parks, forests, and other types of green space fare better in terms of heart health, obesity, birth weight, mood, mental health, and life expectancy, and that neighborhoods with more green amenities (trees, etc.) demonstrate stronger community cohesion. More recent studies have shown reductions in violent crime in districts with a large proportion of parks and trees.

This SLR began with the identification of approximately 15,000 potential papers related to the topic. Using the SLR software Rayaan and Covidence, the search field was reduced to 3,000 titles, which were reviewed in parallel by two researchers to identify citations that merited abstract review. The subsequent abstract reviews revealed approximately 150 papers which were reviewed in parallel and distilled to approximately 20 pertinent papers that are discussed in this presentation. Gaps in the literature are multiple, but the lack of exploration of mechanisms for this relationship stood out. Potential mechanisms include: the direct stress-mitigating impacts of nature, park amenities that support community-building activities, and the perception by the community that parks are an indication that their neighborhoods are important to the municipality.