The environmental theory posits that the location and context of the crime bring the victim of the crime and its perpetrator together.
[3] Studies in the early 2010s showed that crimes are negatively correlated to trees in urban environments; more trees in an area are congruent with lower victimization rates or violent crime rates.
[4][5][6][7][8] This relationship was established by studies in 2010 in
Portland, Oregon and in 2012 in
Baltimore, Maryland.
[4][5][7][8] Geoffrey Donovan of the
United States Forest Service (USFS), one of the researchers, said, "trees, which provide a range of other benefits, could improve quality of life in Portland by reducing crime..."
[5] because "We believe that large street trees can reduce crime by signaling to a potential criminal that a neighborhood is better cared for and, therefore, a criminal is more likely to be caught."
[4][7] Note that the presence of large street trees especially indicated a reduction in crime, as opposed to newer, smaller trees.
[4][7] In the 2012 Baltimore study, led by scientists from the
University of Vermont and the
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), a "conservative spatially adjusted model indicated that a 10% increase in tree canopy was associated with a roughly 12% decrease in crime.... [and] we found that the inverse relationship continued in both contexts, but the magnitude was 40% greater for public than for private lands."
[8] звідси:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victimology