Department of Forest Resources and Landscape Architecture, Yeungnam University, Gyeongbuk 38541, Korea.
Department of Urban Planning, Keimyung University, Daegu 42601, Korea.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Feb 25;17(5):1470. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17051470.
Neighborhood greenery contributes to improving mental, emotional, and physical health and may help to promote neighborhood safety. Several studies have reported positive effects of neighborhood greenery on the improvement of outdoor safety, but little is known about whether the relationship between green vegetation and outdoor safety varies with the income status of neighborhoods. The purpose of this study is to examine neighborhood greenery as a predictor of outdoor crime rates between low and high-income neighborhoods while controlling for the sociodemographic conditions of the neighborhoods. This study used 2010 census block group data and objectively measured natural environment data derived from GIS in Austin, Texas. Comparison t-tests and ordinal least square regressions were conducted as statistical analyses. The t-tests showed that low-income neighborhoods were more socioeconomically disadvantaged and had less greenery than high-income neighborhoods. The final regression models showed that neighborhood greenery had a negative relationship with outdoor crimes for low-income neighborhoods but a positive relationship with crimes for high-income neighborhoods. The results suggest that different strategies may be needed in dealing with neighborhood safety according to neighborhood-level income.
社区绿化有助于改善精神、情感和身体健康，并可能有助于促进社区安全。有几项研究报告了社区绿化对改善户外安全的积极影响，但对于绿色植被与户外安全之间的关系是否因社区收入状况而异知之甚少。本研究旨在检验社区绿化作为预测低和高收入社区户外犯罪率的指标，同时控制社区的社会人口状况。本研究使用了 2010 年人口普查街区组数据和得克萨斯州奥斯汀市 GIS 生成的客观自然环境数据。作为统计分析，进行了比较 t 检验和有序最小二乘回归。t 检验表明，低收入社区在社会经济方面处于不利地位，绿色植被比高收入社区少。最终的回归模型表明，社区绿化与低收入社区的户外犯罪呈负相关，但与高收入社区的犯罪呈正相关。结果表明，根据社区收入水平，处理社区安全问题可能需要采取不同的策略。
