 A Safer Alternative: Cul-de-sacs and Crime in Durham, NC Chris Whittaker

Introduction  The cul-de-sac is a hallmark of suburban sprawl  Advantages:  Development of awkward land plots  Privacy  Less traffic  Lower passing vehicle speed  Disadvantages:  Disconnected communities  Encourage automobile use  Produce urban congestion elsewhere  Inefficient provision of public goods

Why cul-de-sacs?  Popular perception of lower crime  Criminals avoid areas with only one exit  Community policing  Little academic research exists  It is difficult to untangle socioeconomic variables from the spatial layout of these communities  However, it remains a useful exercise to conduct natural experiments

Brief Crime History of Durham

Methodology  Identified communities using Google Maps and Zillow  Created 36 cul-de-sac and two-way street pairings  Compared pairings with ~15,000 pieces of criminal activity data  Narrowed to single-family dwellings (note: possible townhomes, though largely removed)  Divided crime into three categories: burglary, larceny and assault

Findings  Yields a 1-to-4.93 cul-de-sac to two-way street crime ratio

Case Study: Pearson Dr. vs. Paladin Ct.

 Pearson Drive (~20 homes): 7 crimes committed  5 Burglary/Breaking and Entering  1 Simple Assault  1 Larceny  Paladin Court (8 homes): 1 crime committed  1 Burglary/Breaking and Entering

Case Study: Bernice St. vs. S Plum St. Same day crime

Case Study: Bernice St. vs. S Plum St.  S Plum Street (~39 homes): 5 crimes committed  4 Burglary/Breaking and Entering  1 Aggravated Assault  Bernice Street (~23 homes): 2 crimes committed  2 Burglary/Breaking and Entering

Atypical cul-de-sac design

Case Study: Wyman Pl., Wise Pl., Brownlee Pl. vs. Crowell St.

 Crowell Street (~21 homes): 6 crimes committed  2 Theft from a motor vehicle  1 Simple Assault  1 All Other Larceny  1 Burglary/Breaking and Entering  1 Theft from a Building  Wise Place, Wyman Place, and Brownlee Place (~17 homes): 0 crimes committed

1818 Crowell Street  Theft from a motor vehicle (larceny) on 4/5/12  Theft from a building (larceny) on 11/1/12

Discussion  Housing volume and lot size concerns  Selection bias  Spatial permeability  Affluence  Ultimately, correlation does not prove causality

Afterthoughts  Conduct potential future research to better separate spatial and socioeconomic considerations  Add more cul-de-sac communities  Compare findings to similar cities  Expand spatial-criminal research to identify communities with highest level of criminal activity