[Community_garden] do gardens reduce crime?

Sat Mar 8 09:49:29 EST 2008

Miriam,
Since my volunteers got snowed out today... I have time to reflect, be
pensive and type.

Personally, I find that during the spring and summer planting and
harvest season I am WAY too busy to commit crimes.  So that cuts down on
a lot of problems, locally, that is.

Based on what I've seen, I would speculate that community gardens reduce
crime in very specific geographic areas but do not reduce criminal
behavior neighborhood wide until and unless the community garden project
leads to widespread urban renewal.  That would be some major long term
study right there and you'd have chicken and egg problems.

Depends on what your definition of crime is, too.  If we're talking
about illegal dumping, littering, loitering, and public nuisance
offenses like public inebriation and toileting... then yes there is
usually an immediate and permanent reduction.  Not elimination.  Say, I
was just over at a garden in the Old Fourth Ward that was so trashed I
thought for a minute it had been abandoned entirely.  That one really
gets hammered!

I know of cases here in Atlanta where serious crimes take place and the
community garden makes a big difference right in that one teeny tiny
slice of geography... And the whole rest of the area is still aflame.
When things get really bad, the police will eventually react with "troop
surges" (or whatever police call it), but that's nothing to do with the
garden.

So, that doesn't answer your question because it's not a study and I'm
thankful to Cynthia for providing something more worthwhile, I just
wanted to share.  It's all about sharing, really.

Baltimore needs a land trust for community managed open space regardless
of studies, eh?  And do you ever get any money from John Waters?

fgc
Fred Conrad
Community Garden Coordinator
Atlanta Community Food Bank
732 Joseph E Lowery Blvd, NW, Atlanta, GA 30318
ph: 678.553.5932 fx: 678.553.5933
fred.conrad at acfb.org    <http://www.acfb.org> 
Our mission is to fight hunger by engaging, educating and empowering our
community. 

-----Original Message-----
From: community_garden-bounces at list.communitygarden.org
[mailto:community_garden-bounces at list.communitygarden.org] On Behalf Of
Cynthia Price
Sent: Friday, March 07, 2008 5:11 PM
To: Diana Liu
Cc: community_garden at list.communitygarden.org; Miriam Avins
Subject: Re: [Community_garden] do gardens reduce crime?

A while back someone named Katherine Alaimo studied community gardens in
Flint, Michigan. I've talked with her a few times and we had her present
at one of our conferences. She intended to study nutritional aspects of
CGs but after talking with the gardening folks wound up instead studying
how "tensions eased" when communities got together to garden (and as I
recall, voter registration increased). It doesn't really have so much to
do with the individual demeanors of the gardeners; it has to do with the
benefits of getting together to work towards a peaceful common goal.
I've looked all over for such studies, and I think her stuff is the
closest I've found to an academic study on the subject.
I'm not sure the link below will work but it's an article not so much
about what she found out but about community-based research and
scholarship. I know the actual study exists but I've never actually
gotten my hands on it.
But anyway, if the link doesn't work, googling Katherine Alaimo
community gardens brings up several entries.

I believe there is more out there, because at one point the City of
Grand Rapids was hiring these sort of neighborhood crime prevention
specialists, and community gardens was one of their tools -- when I
asked one of them about it, she said they had had access to information
indicating CGs do decrease crime, but I didn't have a chance to follow
up. I think it's a fascinating subject.

Cynthia Price
Greater Grand Rapids Food Systems Council Co-chair, Urban Ag Committee
of Community Food Security Coalition

www.wkkf.org/default.aspx?tabid=55& CID=377&ProjCID=377&ProjID=59&NID=28

On Fri, Mar 7, 2008 at 3:26 PM, Diana Liu <diana1127 at sbcglobal.net>
wrote:

> I don't know about academic studies, but probably in some sociology or

> psychology studies.  However, I think that it needs to be made clear 
> that gardens don't reduce crime.  People reduce crime.  Then it's 
> about how we make tha connection.  Are people who garden more peaceful
and less violent?
>  May be you might find something along that hypothesis.
>
> Miriam Avins <mavins at erols.com> wrote:  Hi, everyone,
>
> I'm working on a paper about Baltimore's need for a land trust for 
> community-managed open space. Can any of you help me find academic 
> studies of how community gardens (and other open spaces managed by
> communities) reduce crime and other social ills? I've seen plenty of 
> studies on the general topic of greening and a reduction in social 
> ills, but nothing specific to community gardens. Can any of you wise 
> folks give me a reference?
>
> Thank you so much!
>
> regards,
>
> Miriam
>
> Miriam Avins
> Homestead Harvest Community Garden
> and Baltimore Green Space
>
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