Community Gardens and Crime: Exploring the Roles of Criminal Opportunity and Informal Social Control

• In Event: Poster Session

Abstract

Community gardens may bring people together in a way that could help to control crime. The bringing together of community members via an organization, such as a community garden, has been shown to build social capital and informal social control (Bursik & Grasmick, 1993; Morenoff et al., 2001; Sampson, 2012). Alternatively, the building of a community garden where once there was likely a vacant lot may help control crime by lowering criminal opportunity. A garden is an improvement in image and territoriality over a vacant lot, and the presence of gardeners may serve as guardians or a type of place manager. The present exploratory study analyzes several case study community gardens in comparison to similar “open-air” spaces (i.e., vacant lots, parking lots, parks/green spaces, and playgrounds) in terms of crime and measures of criminal opportunity and informal social control.

Author

• Lesli Blair, Saint Xavier University