This study examines neighborhood level and municipality wide crime trends for five years before and five years after the inception of a light rail line on crime in the neighborhoods. A piecewise regression model was developed to evaluate the impact of opening of the line in the station neighborhoods. GIS analysis is also used to identify spatial shifts in crime hot spots for the municipalities abutting the green line. The study finds little evidence that the transit line has had significant impacts on crime trends or crime dislocation in the station neighborhoods, nor has the line transported crime from the inner city to the suburbs.
Abstract