UC Irvine

Laws and policies regulating the built environment have played a critical role in the development of modern cities and the idea of utilizing them to combat crime is not unusual. However, research on the effects of zoning on crime is only starting to take off and more empirical work is needed. This article explores the relationship between zoning and crime in the city of Los Angeles by using a Quasi-Poisson regression to estimate the impact of different zoning types on total crime effects of zoning on crime in Los Angeles, at the census block level, by calculating the percent of major zoning types out of total parcels and calculating the Herfindahl index to measure diversity of zoning distribution within each block. Additionally, the article will review literature on social ecological theories of crime, zoning, and how the built environment has impacted other social problems, such as inequality, segregation, and access to resources. Results of the study demonstrate most zoning is associated with significantly less crime; however, manufacturing is the only zoning associated with significantly more crime and increased diversity in land use is associated with more crime.