Link Between Trees & Crime – Landscape Design Thousand Oaks, Santa Barbara, Westlake Village, Newbury Park, Lake Sherwood, and Ventura
Recently, the US Forest Service completed a study that concluded there was indeed a link between trees and human health (if you want to ready about it, check it out here), but back in 2011 they also discovered a link between trees and crime. It’s good to know some of the background on this before you draw any initial conclusions. Historically, planners, landscape architects, and other designers have seen trees and other vegetation as a haven for criminals. The thought was that criminals were more attracted to areas with lots of trees and other vegetation since it provided them with more places to hide. If this was true, then the more trees and shrubs your have, the more crime you’ll attract. Parks, cities, and even private property owners are typically advised to remove trees and shrubs, most especially larger ones, because they attract crime. Turns out that this is utterly a backwards way of thinking.
Evidence from the 2011 USFS study on trees and crime, the first of it’s kind, and a number of other university, municipal, and private studies that have followed have all proven that trees and other vegetation typically deter crime. Also shocking to ‘traditional’ thinking is that the larger a tree is, the more it tends to deter crime. In these studies, all forms of crime with the exception of theft dropped dramatically when trees and other vegetation were present. In terms of other vegetation, such as shrubs, researchers found that size doesn’t matter; if they’re present they’ll deter crime.
No research study of this kind had been done before the 2011 USFS study. All previous studies and research focused on ‘perceived risk’ of crime in planted areas. Typically, people were shown pictures and asked to tell researchers how the images made them feel. Now, looking at the factual realities and the ‘perceived’ realities from past studies we can see that there was a huge disconnect. The take away here would have to be that we need to change our perceptions of trees and vegetation; beautiful things are good for more than just looks.
To read the original newspaper article, click here. If you want to ready the research study, click here.
