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Place-based blight remediation programs have gained popularity in recent years as a crime reduction approach. This study estimated the impact of a citywide vacant lot greening program in Philadelphia on changes in crime over multiple years, and whether the effects were moderated by nearby land uses. The vacant lot greening program was assessed using quasi-experimental and experimental designs. Entropy distance weighting was used in the quasi-experimental analysis to match control lots to be comparable to greened lots on pre-existing crime trends. Fixed-effects difference-in-differences models were used to estimate the impact of the vacant lot greening program in quasi-experimental and experimental analyses. Vacant lot greening was estimated to reduce total crime and multiple subcategories in both the quasi-experimental and experimental evaluations. Remediating vacant lots had a smaller effect on reducing crime when they were located nearby train stations and alcohol outlets. The crime reductions from vacant lot remediations were larger when they were located near areas of active businesses. There is some suggestive evidence that the effects of vacant lot greening are larger when located in neighborhoods with higher pre-intervention levels of social cohesion. The findings suggest that vacant lot greening provides a sustainable approach to reducing crime in disadvantaged neighborhoods, and the effects may vary by different surrounding land uses. To better understand the mechanisms through which place-based blight remediation interventions reduce crime, future research should measure human activities and neighborly socialization in and around places before and after remediation efforts are implemented.

ImportanceStructural racism has resulted in long-standing disinvestment and dilapidated environmental conditions in Black neighborhoods. Abandoned houses signal neglect and foster stress and fear for residents, weakening social ties and potentially contributing to poor health and safety.ObjectiveTo determine whether abandoned house remediation reduces gun violence and substance-related outcomes and increases perceptions of safety and use of outdoor space.Design, Setting, and ParticipantsThis cluster randomized trial was conducted from January 2017 to August 2020, with interventions occurring between August 2018 and March 2019. The study included abandoned houses across Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and surveys completed by participants living nearby preintervention and postintervention. Data analysis was performed from March 2021 to September 2022.InterventionsThe study consisted of 3 arms: (1) full remediation (installing working windows and doors, cleaning trash, weeding); (2) trash cleanup and weeding only; and (3) a no-intervention control.Main Outcomes and MeasuresDifference-in-differences mixed-effects regression models were used to estimate the effect of the interventions on multiple primary outcomes: gun violence (weapons violations, gun assaults, and shootings), illegal substance trafficking and use, public drunkenness, and perceptions of safety and time outside for nearby residents.ResultsA master list of 3265 abandoned houses was randomly sorted. From the top of this randomly sorted list, a total of 63 clusters containing 258 abandoned houses were formed and then randomly allocated to 3 study arms. Of the 301 participants interviewed during the preintervention period, 172 (57.1%) were interviewed during the postintervention period and were included in this analysis; participants were predominantly Black, and most were employed. Study neighborhoods were predominantly Black with high percentages of low-income households. Gun violence outcomes increased in all study arms, but increased the least in the full remediation arm. The full housing remediation arm, compared with the control condition, showed reduced weapons violations by −8.43% (95% CI, −14.68% to −1.19%), reduced gun assaults by −13.12% (95% CI, −21.32% to −3.01%), and reduced shootings by a nonsignificant −6.96% (95% CI, −15.32% to 3.03%). The trash cleanup arm was not associated with a significant differential change in any gun violence outcome. Instances of illegal substance trafficking and use and public drunkenness outcomes were not significantly affected by the housing remediation or trash cleanup treatment. Perceptions of neighborhood safety and time spent outside were unaffected by the intervention. The study arms did differ in a baseline characteristic and some preintervention trends, which raises questions regarding other potential nonmeasured differences between study arms that could have influenced estimates. No evidence of displacement of gun violence outcomes was found.Conclusions and RelevanceIn this cluster randomized controlled trial among low-income, predominantly Black neighborhoods, inexpensive, straightforward abandoned housing remediation was directly linked to significant relative reductions in weapons violations and gun assaults, and suggestive reductions in shootings.Trial Registrationisrctn.org Identifier: ISRCTN14973997

Objectives: This study examines the impact of alcohol consumption in a Major League Baseball (MLB) stadium on area level counts of crime. The modal practice at MLB stadiums is to stop selling alcoholic beverages after the seventh inning. Baseball is not a timed game, so the duration between end of the seventh inning (last call for alcohol) and the end of the game varies considerably, providing a unique natural experiment that allows us to estimate the relationship between alcohol consumption and crime near a stadium on game days to non-game days and to areas around sports bars that fans also frequent but are not subject to alcohol restrictions after the seventh inning. Methods: Crime data were obtained from Philadelphia for the period 2006-2015 and geocoded to the area around the MLB stadium as well as popular sports bars. We rely on difference-in-differences regression models to estimate the change in crime on home game days around the stadium as the game time extends into extra innings to other areas of the city and around sports bars in Philadelphia relative to days when the baseball team plays away from home. Results: We found that when there are extra innings and more game-time after the seventh inning alcohol sales stoppage crime declines significantly around the stadium. The effects are largely driven by a reduction in assaults. The crime reduction benefit of the last call alcohol policy is undone when a complex of sports bars opens in the stadium parking lot in 2012. The results suggest that alcohol consumption during baseball games is a contributor to crime. Conclusions: The findings provide further support for environmental theories of crime that note the congregation of people in places with excessive alcohol consumption is a generator of violent crime in cities. The consumption of alcohol in MLB stadiums appears to increase opportunities for people to get swept up into fights.

BACKGROUND: Buruli ulcer is a neglected tropical disease caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans infection that damages the skin and subcutis. It is most prevalent in western and central Africa and Australia. Standard antimicrobial treatment with oral rifampicin 10 mg/kg plus intramuscular streptomycin 15 mg/kg once daily for 8 weeks (RS8) is highly effective, but streptomycin injections are painful and potentially harmful. We aimed to compare the efficacy and tolerability of fully oral rifampicin 10 mg/kg plus clarithromycin 15 mg/kg extended release once daily for 8 weeks (RC8) with that of RS8 for treatment of early Buruli ulcer lesions.METHODS: We did an open-label, non-inferiority, randomised (1:1 with blocks of six), multicentre, phase 3 clinical trial comparing fully oral RC8 with RS8 in patients with early, limited Buruli ulcer lesions. There were four trial sites in hospitals in Ghana (Agogo, Tepa, Nkawie, Dunkwa) and one in Benin (Pobè). Participants were included if they were aged 5 years or older and had typical Buruli ulcer with no more than one lesion (caterories I and II) no larger than 10 cm in diameter. The trial was open label, and neither the investigators who took measurements of the lesions nor the attending doctors were masked to treatment assignment. The primary clinical endpoint was lesion healing (ie, full epithelialisation or stable scar) without recurrence at 52 weeks after start of antimicrobial therapy. The primary endpoint and safety were assessed in the intention-to-treat population. A sample size of 332 participants was calculated to detect inferiority of RC8 by a margin of 12%. This study was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01659437.FINDINGS: Between Jan 1, 2013, and Dec 31, 2017, participants were recruited to the trial. We stopped recruitment after 310 participants. Median age of participants was 14 years (IQR 10-29) and 153 (52%) were female. 297 patients had PCR-confirmed Buruli ulcer; 151 (51%) were assigned to RS8 treatment, and 146 (49%) received oral RC8 treatment. In the RS8 group, lesions healed in 144 (95%, 95% CI 91 to 98) of 151 patients, whereas lesions healed in 140 (96%, 91 to 99) of 146 patients in the RC8 group. The difference in proportion, -0·5% (-5·2 to 4·2), was not significantly greater than zero (p=0·59), showing that RC8 treatment is non-inferior to RS8 treatment for lesion healing at 52 weeks. Treatment-related adverse events were recorded in 20 (13%) patients receiving RS8 and in nine (7%) patients receiving RC8. Most adverse events were grade 1-2, but one (1%) patient receiving RS8 developed serious ototoxicity and ended treatment after 6 weeks. No patients needed surgical resection. Four patients (two in each study group) had skin grafts.INTERPRETATION: Fully oral RC8 regimen was non-inferior to RS8 for treatment of early, limited Buruli ulcer and was associated with fewer adverse events. Therefore, we propose that fully oral RC8 should be the preferred therapy for early, limited lesions of Buruli ulcer.FUNDING: WHO with additional support from MAP International, American Leprosy Missions, Fondation Raoul Follereau France, Buruli ulcer Groningen Foundation, Sanofi-Pasteur, and BuruliVac.

Over the past twenty years, many US cities have seen urban revitalization and population changes associated with an increased desire for urban living among the affluent. As inner-city neighborhoods become gentrified, they are more likely to witness the construction of new buildings and homes, the conversion of industrial spaces to mixed-used developments, expanded access to mass transit, and the arrival of coffee shops and other urban amenities. In this review, we take stock of what is known about the impact of gentrification and land-use changes on neighborhood crime. We summarize research conducted since the period of urban revitalization that started in the 1990s as well as studies that have a quasi-experimental design. We find that gentrification and associated changes to land use tend to reduce crime in neighborhoods. Our findings are tempered by the need for greater conceptual clarity on how to measure when a neighborhood has gentrified and a clearer examination of the spatial displacement of crime. We conclude with a discussion on the need for criminologists to partner with urban planners to study how changes in the land use of cities can be made to generate crime reductions that benefit all places and, finally, detail some promising directions for future research.

Community-based research inclusive of self-assessment and objective environmental metrics can be enhanced by the collection of biomarker data in unity toward assessing the health impacts of the totality of environmental stress driven by structural racism. Cortisol dynamic range (CDR), a measure of chronic stress burden, may underpin place-based connections to health, but a gap remains in elucidating community-based CDR methodology.To 1) assess the feasibility of cortisol collection and CDR measurement in a community-based study with home-based, participant-directed specimen collection, and 2) explore the association between CDR and other individual and environmental measures in a sample of predominantly Black participants.The cohort (77% Black, 39.7%$15 k/year income, high perceived stress) completed 98.6% of cortisol collection timepoints. CDR was calculated in all participants without interruptions to sleep-wake cycle as seen with CAR collection. Participants in the lowest quartile of CDR were the oldest (p = 0.03) with lowest reported mental health (p = 0.048) with no associations seen for CAR.Participant-collected CDR is more feasible than cortisol measures dependent on slopes over time in a community-based, predominately Black cohort with exploratory findings supporting relevance to outcomes of interest to future work. Future community-based studies should integrate CDR with environment and psychosocial measures.

Early life exposure to environmental lead (Pb) has been linked to decreased IQ, behavior problems, lower lifetime earnings, and increased criminal activity. Beginning in the 1970s, limits on Pb in paint, gasoline, food cans, and regulated water utilities sharply curtailed US environmental Pb exposure. Nonetheless, hundreds of thousands of US children remain at risk. This study reports on how unregulated private well water is an underrecognized Pb exposure source that is associated with an increased risk of teenage juvenile delinquency. We build a longitudinal dataset linking blood Pb measurements for 13,580 children under age 6 to their drinking water source, individual- and neighborhood-level demographics, and reported juvenile delinquency records. We estimate how early life Pb exposure from private well water influences reported delinquency. On average, children in homes with unregulated private wells had 11% higher blood Pb than those with community water service. This higher blood Pb was significantly associated with reported delinquency. Compared to children with community water service, those relying on private wells had a 21% (95% CI: 5 to 40%) higher risk of being reported for any delinquency and a 38% (95% CI: 10 to 73%) increased risk of being reported for serious delinquency after age 14. These results suggest that there could be substantial but as-yet-unrecognized social benefits from intervention programs to prevent children's exposure to Pb from private wells, on which 13% of the US population relies.

Outfitting police officers with body-worn cameras (BWCs) has been suggested to improve police-community relations. This study evaluates whether the deployment of BWCs on NYPD officers impacted resident perceptions of the police. A cluster randomized controlled trial design was used to test the influence of BWCs on resident perceptions of the NYPD in treatment precincts relative to control precincts. Dual-frame randomly selected telephone surveys were used to collect pre-intervention and post-intervention resident perception data. We find no statistically significant differences between BWC treatment and control precincts in general perceptions of the NYPD or the average assessment of police officer behavior among those who have had recent encounters with the NYPD. Strong community support for BWC adoption and citizen expectations for videos of controversial policing events suggests the continued use of this technology. However, BWCs should be implemented with other evidence-based programs to enhance police-community relations.

Resume— L'approche d'un controle anti puces souligne Pimportance de la communication entre le veterinaire et le proprietaire d'un animal de compagnie, communication qui implique la connaissance de chaque cas de figure individuel. Une revue des antiparasitaires usuels est brievement presentee incluant les principes actifs et leur classification. Les concepts de mise en place d'un programme de controle anti puces qui sont presentes incluent aussi bien les aspects de controle des puces a l'interieur des habitations et dans le milieu exerieur, que les produits et methodes utilisees pour traiter l'animal. Les produits les plus recents utilises dans la lutte antipuces sont presentes, comme les regulateurs de croissance des insectes, les inhibiteurs de croissance des insectes, les traitements utilisant des nematodes, et les composes a base de borate. [MacDon-ald, J. M. Flea control: an overview of treatment concepts for North America (Controle antipuces: revue des concepts de traitement en Amerique du Nord). Resumen— El enfoque al control de pulgas pone de manifiesto la importancia de la interrelacion entre el veterinario y el propietario del animal, siendo necesario un conocimiento de las condiciones especiales en casos individuales. Se presenta una breve revision de los parasiticidas mas comunes, con un listado de los compuestos activos y su clasificacion. Se presentan los principios para el diseno de un programa de control de pulgas, incluyendo el control dentro y fuera de la vivienda, asi como productos y metodos para tratar el animal. Se revisan los productos mas recientes utilizados para el control de pulgas como reguladores del crecimiento de insectos, reguladores del desarrollo de insectos, tratamiento de nematodos y compuestos de borato. [MacDonald, J. M. Flea control: an overview of treatment concepts for North America (Control de pulgas: un repaso a los principios sobre tratamiento en Norte-America). Abstract— The approach to flea control emphasizes the importance of interrelationships between veterinarian and pet owner requiring knowledge of the unique environment of individual cases. A review of common parasiticides is briefly presented listing active ingredients and their classification. Concepts of developing a flea control program are presented that include aspects of inside and outside flea control as well as products and methods used to treat the pet. Newer products used in flea control are reviewed including insect growth regulators, insect development inhibitors, nematode treatment and borate compounds.

Municipal governments commonly confront the problem of tardy or delinquent property tax payments. We implement an experiment in property tax collection for tardy taxpayers in the City of Philadelph...

We leverage the closing of chronically underperforming public schools in Philadelphia to estimate their impact on neighborhood crime. Employing a difference-in-differences strategy comparing monthly crime in blocks where school buildings closed to blocks where schools remained open or were never located, we find significant and substantive declines in crime following school closure. The decline in crime is driven by reductions in violent crime, is concentrated in blocks where high schools closed, during weekday hours when schools would have been in session, and is greatest in the blocks where more students exited following closures. While crime increased in blocks that enrolled a larger share of students displaced due to closures, the displacement of crime was significantly smaller in magnitude than the total crime reduction. These results suggest that closing schools with high rates of student misconduct and low educational performance led to a net reduction in crime in Philadelphia.

We rely on a policy experiment in the New York City Police Department (NYPD) to address the well-known problems of omitted variable bias and infra-marginality in traditional outcomes tests of racial bias in police stops. The NYPD designated specific areas as impact zones and deployed extra officers to these areas and encouraged them to conduct more intensive stop, question, and frisk activity. We find that the NYPD are more likely to frisk black and Hispanic suspects after an area becomes an impact zone compared to other areas of the city.

Urban districts throughout the country are increasingly closing schools in response to declining enrollment and academic underperformance. We estimate the impact of public school closings in Philadelphia on student achievement and behavioral outcomes. While school closures had no effect on the average achievement of displaced students, achievement increased among displaced students attending higher-performing schools following closure. The achievement of students attending receiving-schools, however, was negatively affected by the receipt of displaced students. School absences increased significantly for displaced students following closure. We also find that the achievement of displaced and receiving-school students declined as the fraction of displaced students attending a receiving-school increased, and displaced students missed more days of school and received more suspension days the farther they traveled to their new school following closure. These findings suggest that the academic and behavioral consequences of closing urban schools depend on the school settings displaced and receiving-school students experience in the wake of closures.

To assess the effect of civil gang injunctions on crime. We use data on the location and date of 46 gang injunctions between 1993 and 2013 and quarterly crimes reported to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) from 1988 to 2014. We estimate the effect of gang injunctions on crime over the short-term (20 quarters) and long-term (108 quarters) using difference-in-differences designs that take into account spatial and temporal correlation. Three gang injunctions were paused during the study period and provide a natural experiment from which we estimate the short-term effect of these injunctions on crime. Gang injunctions are estimated to reduce total crime 5% in the short-term and 18% in the long-term, most of the effect coming from reductions in assaults. Analyses of the three interrupted injunctions yielded estimates of similar magnitude, providing further support of a crime reduction effect of gang injunctions. We found no evidence that gang injunctions are associated with displacing crime to nearby areas. Injunctions represent a powerful place-based intervention strategy for police and prosecutors. Courts have recently subjected gang injunctions to closer scrutiny. This study indicates that gang injunctions contributed to a meaningful amount of the crime reductions in Los Angeles. Future research should examine whether gang injunctions reduce crime by specific deterrent effects on individual gang members or by the general deterrent effect of placing an area under greater police surveillance and restricting public gatherings and other actions deemed to be indicators of gang activity.

The Lewisian Gneiss Complex (LGC) is a tonalite-trondhjemite-granodiorite (TTG)-dominated fragment of the North Atlantic Craton (NAC) in northwest Scotland. End-member models describe the LGC as representing either a continuous piece of Archean crust or up to 12 geologically distinct Archean terranes, with interpretations sitting on a spectrum between these end-members. There is particular uncertainty over the correlations between the Archean–Paleoproterozoic magmatic and metamorphic events recorded by mainland part of the LGC and the part exposed on the Outer Hebridean islands of Lewis and Harris. In this paper, we present the results of field mapping, petrography, and major, trace and platinum-group element (PGE) bulk-rock geochemistry for four ultramafic–mafic bodies in Lewis and Harris, namely: Maaruig, Loch Mhorsgail, Coltraiseal Mor and Beinn a’ Chuailean. We consider the effects of metamorphism and element mobility, their petrogenesis, and potential correlations with ultramafic–mafic rocks elsewhere in the LGC. Our data indicate that the studied ultramafic–mafic rocks can be subdivided into two petrologically distinct groups. Metaperidotites and metapyroxenites from Maaruig and Loch Mhorsgail are interpreted as Archean (>2.8 Ga) cumulates distinct from anything currently identified in the mainland LGC, with this interpretation based on distinctive modal layering, a discordance with surrounding TTG gneiss, fractionated PGE patterns ([Pd/Ir]N = 1.3–6.6) and negative HFSE anomalies ([Nb/La]N = 0.2–0.8). Metagabbronorites from Coltraiseal Mor and Beinn a’ Chuailean, which also exhibit negative high field strength-element (HFSE) anomalies ([Nb/La]N = 0.2–0.7) and show mildly fractionated ([Pd/Ir]N = 1.2–2.8) PGE patterns, most likely represent deformed Paleoproterozoic dykes. These occurrences could be correlatives of a suite of ca. 2.4 Ga mafic dykes exposed throughout the mainland LGC (the Scourie Dykes), with the Outer Hebridean occurrences having experienced more intense Paleoproterozoic (Laxfordian) deformation/reworking. These interpretations suggest that the LGC lithologies of Lewis and Harris were proximal to the mainland LGC’s Central Region by the early Paleoproterozoic but raises the possibility that they were distinct crustal blocks in the Mesoarchean.

Although the Flint, Michigan, water crisis renewed concerns about lead (Pb) in city drinking water, little attention has been paid to Pb in private wells, which provide drinking water for 13% of the US population. This study evaluates the risk of Pb exposure in children in households relying on private wells. It is based on a curated dataset of blood Pb records from 59,483 North Carolina children matched with household water source information. We analyze the dataset for statistical associations between children's blood Pb and household drinking water source. The analysis shows that children in homes relying on private wells have 25% increased odds (95% CI 6.2 to 48%, P < 0.01) of elevated blood Pb, compared with children in houses served by a community water system that is regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act. This increased Pb exposure is likely a result of corrosion of household plumbing and well components, because homes relying on private wells rarely treat their water to prevent corrosion. In contrast, corrosion control is required in regulated community water systems. These findings highlight the need for targeted outreach to prevent Pb exposure for the 42.5 million Americans depending on private wells for their drinking water.

We examine the effect of the Philadelphia LandCare vacant lot greening initiative on crime and the extent to which surrounding land uses and business types moderate this intervention. We rely on a propensity score matching analysis to account for substantial differences in demographic, economic, land use, and business characteristics between greened and ungreened vacant lots. We estimate larger and more significant crime reductions around vacant lots that are greened in our matched pairs analysis compared to unmatched analyses. The effects of vacant lot greening on crime are larger in areas with high residential, high civic, and low transportation land use and are moderated by the presence of different types of nearby businesses.

Violence is a widespread problem that affects the physical, mental, and social health of individuals and communities. Violence comes with an immense economic cost to its victims and society at large. Although violence interventions have traditionally targeted individuals, changes to the built environment in places where violence occurs show promise as practical, sustainable, and high-impact preventive measures. This review examines studies that use quasi-experimental or experimental designs to compare violence outcomes for treatment and control groups before and after a change is implemented in the built environment. The most consistent evidence exists in the realm of housing and blight remediation of buildings and land. Some evidence suggests that reducing alcohol availability, improving street connectivity, and providing green housing environments can reduce violent crimes. Finally, studies suggest that neither transit changes nor school openings affect community violence.

Various methodological approaches to constructing external and internal benchmarks have been applied to estimate racial bias in police stop, question, and frisk (SQF) patterns. We apply an external...

The current study builds on prior research examining racial disparities in sentencing. Entropy weighting is introduced as a new method for estimating racial disparities that has several advantages over traditionally used methods. Entropy weighting is compared to regression and propensity score methods in estimating Black-White disparities in incarceration sentences. Although all methods find non-significant racial disparities in incarceration sentences, regression and propensity score methods underestimate disparities in incarceration sentence lengths. Entropy weighting provides comparable estimates to propensity score methods, but assures that the samples are identical on all covariates aside from race. The method offers researchers a useful and flexible approach for estimating racial disparities in criminal justice, and its use may lead to alternative conclusions about the size and presence of racial disparities in sentencing.

Firearm violence rates have increased in U.S. cities in 2020 and into 2021. We investigate contagious and non-contagious space-time clustering in shooting events in four U.S. cities (Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia) from 2016 to 2020. We estimate the dynamic reproduction number (Rt) of shootings, a measure of contagion, using a Hawkes point process. We also measure concentration over time using a spatial Gini index. We find that the contagious spread of violence increased in 2020 in several, but not all, of the cities we considered. In all four cities, non-contagious (Poisson) events comprised the majority of shootings across time (including 2020). We also find that the spatial location and concentration of shooting hot spots remained stable across all years. We discuss the implications of our findings and directions for future research.

The root causes of violent crime in Black urban neighborhoods are structural, including residential racial segregation and concentrated poverty. Previous work suggests that simple and scalable place-based environmental interventions can overcome the legacies of neighborhood disinvestment and have implications for health broadly and crime specifically.To assess whether structural repairs to the homes of low-income owners are associated with a reduction in nearby crime.This cross-sectional study using difference-in-differences analysis included data from the City of Philadelphia Basic Systems Repair Program (BSRP) from January 1, 2006, through April 30, 2013. The unit of analysis was block faces (single street segments between 2 consecutive intersecting streets) with or without homes that received the BSRP intervention. The blocks of homes that received BSRP services were compared with the blocks of eligible homes that were still on the waiting list. Data were analyzed from December 1, 2019, to February 28, 2021.The BSRP intervention includes a grant of up to $20 000 provided to low-income owners for structural repairs to electrical, plumbing, heating, and roofing damage. Eligible homeowners must meet income guidelines, which are set by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and vary yearly.The main outcome was police-reported crime across 7 major categories of violent and nonviolent crimes (homicide, assault, burglary, theft, robbery, disorderly conduct, and public drunkenness).A total of 13 632 houses on 6732 block faces received the BSRP intervention. Owners of these homes had a mean (range) age of 56.5 (18-98) years, were predominantly Black (10 952 [78.6%]) or Latino (1658 [11.9%]) individuals, and had a mean monthly income of $993. These census tracts compared with those without BSRP intervention had a substantially larger Black population (49.5% vs 12.2%; |D| = 0.406) and higher unemployment rate (17.3% vs 9.3%; |D| = 0.357). The main regression analysis demonstrated that the addition to a block face of a property that received a BSRP intervention was associated with a 21.9% decrease in the expected count of total crime (incidence rate ratio [IRR], 0.78; 95% CI, 0.76-0.80; P .001), 19.0% decrease in assault (IRR, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.79-0.84; P .001), 22.6% decrease in robbery (IRR, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.75-0.80; P .001), and 21.9% decrease in homicide (IRR, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.71-0.86; P .001). When restricting the analysis to blocks with properties that had ever received a BSRP intervention, a total crime reduction of 25.4% was observed for each additional property (IRR, 0.75; 95% CI, 0.73-0.77; P .001). A significant dose-dependent decrease in total crime was found such that the magnitude of association increased with higher numbers of homes participating in the BSRP on a block.This study found that the BSRP intervention was associated with a modest but significant reduction in crime. These findings suggest that intentional and targeted financial investment in structural, scalable, and sustainable place-based interventions in neighborhoods that are still experiencing the lasting consequences of structural racism and segregation is a vital step toward achieving health equity.

To assess the impact of schools on crime in neighborhoods. We utilize data of charter and public schools in Philadelphia to estimate the effect of school openings on neighborhood crime patterns between 1998 and 2010. We estimate the change in crime in areas surrounding schools before and after their opening compared to areas where schools were always open with Poisson regression models. We also estimate changes in crime in census tracts as schools are added compared to census tracts that never had schools. Finally, we compare estimates from Poisson regression models to those derived from permutation tests where schools are randomly assigned different opening dates. We find no evidence that school openings increase crime relative to locations where schools were always open or never had schools. The models generally produce null effects, though there is some evidence for a reduction in property crimes for public school openings and a reduction in violent crimes for charter school openings within certain distances. Estimates at the census tract level show that changes in the number of schools are not associated with any changes in crime relative to tracts with no schools. Contrary to a large theoretical and empirical literature, the results suggest that school locations play a minimal role in neighborhood crime production in Philadelphia. Future research should investigate specific contexts and mechanisms, such as land-use characteristics and travel patterns to schools, which may interact with specific school settings in ways that are related to crime production.

The ecological impact of invasive tree pests is increasing worldwide. However, invasive tree pests may also have significant social costs. We investigated the association between the emerald ash borer (EAB)—an invasive tree pest first discovered in the US in 2002—and crime in Cincinnati, Ohio. We used a natural experimental approach, and compared crime (in 11 classes) on census block groups infested with EAB with crime on block groups not infested with EAB between 2005 and 2014. We accounted for demographic and biological differences between infested and un-infested block groups using propensity-score weighting. EAB infestation was significantly and positively associated with relative increases in crime in all but four crime categories. Our results suggest that invasive tree pests may be associated with social costs worth considering when managing invasive species. By extension, healthy trees may provide significant social benefits.

This chapter looks at interventions for land and open spaces and their impact on public health and safety. Abandoned, vacant, and neglected land is of great and growing concern in many cities. The chapter considers recent efforts to address this sort of land-based blight and how planners can partner with scientists to implement and evaluate land-remediation and zoning strategies to best improve public health and safety. In many ways, these changes represent the innate human desire for nature and green spaces. Without action from planners and landscape architects, such natural spaces would not exist in many of the cities. The chapter then showcases several studies that provide evidence that the mere presence of green spaces have healing and calming effects, an effect that occurs even if residents do not actively use these spaces. Indeed, there have been myriad efforts over the past decade or so by cities to revisit and reinvigorate their green and open-space planning efforts. Much of this effort has been to insert managed green spaces into smaller parcels and equitably distribute them across neighborhoods that lack access to larger green spaces. This pocket-park movement has economic drivers but, in some cities, also seeks to leverage the likely health benefits to local residents.

This chapter focuses on urban building and housing interventions that have been evaluated at some of the highest levels of scientific evidence. Building and housing interventions strongly appeal to policy makers and the public who intrinsically recognize the basic human need for shelter. The most blighted and neglected human dwellings in cities provide a strong basis for motivating action. After all, one can clearly see a significant change in an area when old buildings and physical structures are razed and new ones constructed. Questions arise, however, in terms of the actual need for complete replacement with new structures, as opposed to more widespread renovations and preservation of old buildings. It is equally important to consider the effect that urban-revitalization activities—especially in residential districts—have on gentrification and the possible reduction of a city's affordable housing stock, which itself influences health and safety. The chapter then discusses examples of building interventions that have failed to produce positive evidence and ones that have shown success without causing significant dislocation or displacement.

This chapter examines how the features of the built environment affect health and safety. It focuses on why and how the design of places shapes people's lived experience. Moreover, it introduces an emerging scientific movement concerned with the way changes to the built environment, from buildings and parks to streets, impact health and safety. Changing places is one of the best ways to produce sustained improvements in well-being for large groups of people over long periods of time. Certain characteristics of place-based designs can be chosen to maximize success. Altering the structures of the built environment to basic principles of simplicity, scalability, and ease of use can be employed as a model for producing place-based changes that have the most significant and lasting impact. The chapter then illustrates why place-based strategies should be among the first set of policy choices for enhancing the health and safety of urban residents.

This chapter traces the history of select endeavors that focused on place-based changes as a mechanism to improve the health, safety, and well-being of urban residents. Unfortunately, these endeavors evolved in silos, with urban planners and public-health and criminal-justice practitioners working largely in isolation from one another. The successes and limited uptake of these isolated endeavors are brought to light as the chapter looks at how they were overshadowed by individually focused therapies and interventions. Many people probably think that good science is already inherently involved when a place gets altered or a development gets built; this is perhaps the case with respect to the physical science of certain placemaking endeavors. However, the health and biological impacts of buildings and larger developments are very often left out, or only modestly considered as part of environmental or health-impact assessments. As such, there is a need to invigorate a new movement that connects social scientists, planners, and policy makers. Indeed, the best placemaking occurs when it is supported by empirical evaluation of its impacts on humans with the active involvement of scientists.

This chapter presents an in-depth examination of how the design of entertainment districts and public parks impacts the health and safety of neighborhoods. Many place-based changes are initially spurred on by commercial interests in and around business districts. However, little attention has been placed on the role that commercial and business design can have on people's health and safety outcomes. Commercial corridors and business districts that actively choose to enhance the place-based experience for their customers generate bustling streets that improve commerce and reduce crime. Parks were originally designed for leisure, and large infrastructure changes to parks are expensive and generate little change in overall use and exercise. However, small strategic changes can be made to parks to provide subtle motivational signs that stimulate greater physical activity among park users. The chapter then considers several studies based on rigorous scientific evidence that highlight how such strategic designs and governance arrangements of business districts and parks can improve the experience of people in search of places for shopping and recreation.

Violence is a leading cause of death and disability in the United States and abroad, with far-reaching consequences for individuals and communities. Interventions that address environmental and social contexts have the potential for greater populationwide effects, yet research has been slow to identify and rigorously evaluate these types of interventions to reduce violence. Several urban communities across the US are conducting experimental and quasi-experimental community-based research to examine the effect of place-based interventions on violence. Using examples from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Flint, Michigan; Youngstown, Ohio; and New Orleans, Louisiana, we describe how place-based interventions that remediate vacant land and abandoned buildings work to reduce violence. These examples support the potential for place-based interventions to create far-reaching and sustainable improvements in the health and safety of communities that experience significant disadvantage. These interventions warrant the attention of community stakeholders, funders, and policy makers.

Key Points Question Does the greening of vacant urban land reduce self-reported poor mental health in community-dwelling adults? Findings In this cluster randomized trial of urban greening and mental health, 110 randomly sampled vacant lot clusters were randomly assigned to 3 study groups. Among 342 participants included in the analysis, feeling depressed significantly decreased by 41.5% and self-reported poor mental health showed a reduction of 62.8% for those living near greened vacant lots compared with control participants. Meaning The remediation of vacant and dilapidated physical environments, particularly in resource-limited urban settings, can be an important tool for communities to address mental health problems, alongside other patient-level treatments., Importance Neighborhood physical conditions have been associated with mental illness and may partially explain persistent socioeconomic disparities in the prevalence of poor mental health. Objective To evaluate whether interventions to green vacant urban land can improve self-reported mental health. Design, Setting, and Participants This citywide cluster randomized trial examined 442 community-dwelling sampled adults living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, within 110 vacant lot clusters randomly assigned to 3 study groups. Participants were followed up for 18 months preintervention and postintervention. This trial was conducted from October 1, 2011, to November 30, 2014. Data were analyzed from July 1, 2015, to April 16, 2017. Interventions The greening intervention involved removing trash, grading the land, planting new grass and a small number of trees, installing a low wooden perimeter fence, and performing regular monthly maintenance. The trash cleanup intervention involved removal of trash, limited grass mowing where possible, and regular monthly maintenance. The control group received no intervention. Main Outcomes and Measures Self-reported mental health measured by the Kessler-6 Psychological Distress Scale and the components of this scale. Results A total of 110 clusters containing 541 vacant lots were enrolled in the trial and randomly allocated to the following 1 of 3 study groups: the greening intervention (37 clusters [33.6%]), the trash cleanup intervention (36 clusters [32.7%]), or no intervention (37 clusters [33.6%]). Of the 442 participants, the mean (SD) age was 44.6 (15.1) years, 264 (59.7%) were female, and 194 (43.9%) had a family income less than $25 000. A total of 342 participants (77.4%) had follow-up data and were included in the analysis. Of these, 117 (34.2%) received the greening intervention, 107 (31.3%) the trash cleanup intervention, and 118 (34.5%) no intervention. Intention-to-treat analysis of the greening intervention compared with no intervention demonstrated a significant decrease in participants who were feeling depressed (−41.5%; 95% CI, −63.6% to −5.9%; P = .03) and worthless (−50.9%; 95% CI, −74.7% to −4.7%; P = .04), as well as a nonsignificant reduction in overall self-reported poor mental health (−62.8%; 95% CI, −86.2% to 0.4%; P = .051). For participants living in neighborhoods below the poverty line, the greening intervention demonstrated a significant decrease in feeling depressed (−68.7%; 95% CI, −86.5% to −27.5%; P = .007). Intention-to-treat analysis of those living near the trash cleanup intervention compared with no intervention showed no significant changes in self-reported poor mental health. Conclusions and Relevance Among community-dwelling adults, self-reported feelings of depression and worthlessness were significantly decreased, and self-reported poor mental health was nonsignificantly reduced for those living near greened vacant land. The treatment of blighted physical environments, particularly in resource-limited urban settings, can be an important treatment for mental health problems alongside other patient-level treatments. Trial Registration isrctn.org Identifier: ISRCTN92582209, This cluster randomized trial compares the effects of greening vacant urban land (removing trash, grading land, planting grass and trees, installing fences, and regular maintenance) vs no intervention on the self-reported mental health of adults living in neighborhoods with vacant urban lots in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Background Buruli ulcer (Mycobacterium ulcerans infection) is a Neglected Tropical Disease characterised by severe subcutaneous necrosis, with occasional bone involvement. Being reported from 33 countries, it is most prevalent in West and Central Africa, and Australia. In Africa, the major burden is borne by poor rural children. If left untreated, Buruli ulcer may progress to cause severe suffering and ultimately stigmatising disability resulting in school drop-out and loss of income. Standard antimicrobial treatment with oral rifampicin 10 mg/kg and intramuscular streptomycin 15 mg/kg for eight weeks (RS8) is highly effective but streptomycin injections are painful and may cause hearing loss. Methods Between January 2013 and December 2017, we conducted an open label randomised multicentre phase III clinical trial with noninferiority design comparing fully oral treatment with rifampicin and clarithromycin 15 mg/kg extended release (RC8) with RS8. A sample size of 332 participants was calculated to detect inferiority of CR8 by a margin of 12%.%%%%An article published by The Lancet%%%%KNUST

Objectives. To determine if remediating blighted vacant urban land reduced firearm shooting incidents resulting in injury or death. Methods. We conducted a cluster randomized controlled trial in which we assigned 541 randomly selected vacant lots in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to 110 geographically contiguous clusters and randomly assigned these clusters to a greening intervention, a less-intensive mowing and trash cleanup intervention, or a no-intervention control condition. The random assignment to the trial occurred in April and June 2013 and lasted until March 2015. In a difference-in-differences analysis, we assessed whether the 2 treatment conditions relative to the control condition reduced firearm shootings around vacant lots. Results. During the trial, both the greening intervention, −6.8% (95% confidence interval [CI] = −10.6%, −2.7%), and the mowing and trash cleanup intervention, −9.2% (95% CI = −13.2%, −4.8%), significantly reduced shootings. There was no evidence that the interventions displaced shootings into adjacent areas. Conclusions. Remediating vacant land with inexpensive, scalable methods, including greening or minimal mowing and trash cleanup, significantly reduced shootings that result in serious injury or death. Public Health Implications. Cities should experiment with place-based interventions to develop effective firearm violence–reduction strategies. Trial Registration. This trial was registered with the International Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Number (study ID ISRCTN92582209; http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN92582209 ).

To assess the impact of rail transit on crime in neighborhoods near transit stations. We use data on the location and date of all rail station openings in Los Angeles between 1990 and 2012 and crimes reported to the Los Angeles Police Department from 1988 to 2014. We estimate the effect of transit on crime using a stepped-wedge design estimated with Poisson regression with permutation tests to assess statistical significance. Two labor strikes during the study period created a natural experiment for which we assessed the short-term effect of transit on crime. We find no evidence that transit station openings or disruptions in transit due to strikes result in changes in crime in surrounding neighborhoods. The results suggest that rail transit may produce no major consequence for overall neighborhood crime patterns. Future research should examine other cities and more fine-grained geocoded data on crime at the street segment level and by land-use characteristics that generate foot traffic, as this approach could assess under what conditions transit may generate crime increases or reductions in highly localized areas.

Executive SummaryThis study evaluates a set of notification strategies intended to increase property tax collection. To test these strategies, we develop a field experiment in collaboration with the Philadelphia Department of Revenue. The resulting notification strategies draw on core rationales for tax compliance: deterrence, the need to finance the provision of public goods and services, as well as an appeal to civic duty. Our empirical findings provide evidence that carefully designed and targeted notification strategies can modestly improve tax compliance.

Law and economics suggests that liability for intentional torts is motivated by deterrence. The tortfeasor’s investments in undertaking the intentional act and the victim’s investments in precautions against the harm arising from the act are likely to be socially wasteful. Further, especially in the case of battery, the benefit of committing the intentional act will generally fall short of the loss to the victim. For these reasons, it makes sense to impose liability on the tortfeasor for the full loss experienced by the victim of an intentional tort. This deterrence theory requires that intentional tortfeasors are sensitive to liability exposure. To test this assumption, we examine changes in state-level homicide rates in response to caps on non-economic damages in tort. We find that murder rates increase by more than 5 percent when states adopt caps on non-economic damages.

Significance Blighted and vacant urban land is a widespread and potentially risky environmental condition encountered by millions of people every day. About 15% of the land in US cities is deemed vacant or abandoned, translating into an area roughly the size of Switzerland: over 3 million hectares of otherwise beneficial spaces remain neglected. Urban residents, especially in low-income neighborhoods, point to these spaces as primary threats to their health and safety. Cities continue to seek meaningful, evidence-based interventions for remediating vacant land. Standardized processes for the restoration of vacant urban land were experimentally tested on a citywide scale and found to significantly reduce gun violence, crime, and fear., Vacant and blighted urban land is a widespread and potentially risky environmental condition encountered by millions of people on a daily basis. About 15% of the land in US cities is deemed vacant or abandoned, an area roughly the size of Switzerland. In a citywide cluster randomized controlled trial, we investigated the effects of standardized, reproducible interventions that restore vacant land on the commission of violence, crime, and the perceptions of fear and safety. Quantitative and ethnographic analyses were included in a mixed-methods approach to more fully test and explicate our findings. A total of 541 randomly sampled vacant lots were randomly assigned into treatment and control study arms; outcomes from police and 445 randomly sampled participants were analyzed over a 38-month study period. Participants living near treated vacant lots reported significantly reduced perceptions of crime (−36.8%, P < 0.05), vandalism (−39.3%, P < 0.05), and safety concerns when going outside their homes (−57.8%, P < 0.05), as well as significantly increased use of outside spaces for relaxing and socializing (75.7%, P < 0.01). Significant reductions in crime overall (−13.3%, P < 0.01), gun violence (−29.1%, P < 0.001), burglary (−21.9%, P < 0.001), and nuisances (−30.3%, P < 0.05) were also found after the treatment of vacant lots in neighborhoods below the poverty line. Blighted and vacant urban land affects people’s perceptions of safety, and their actual, physical safety. Restoration of this land can be an effective and scalable infrastructure intervention for gun violence, crime, and fear in urban neighborhoods.