Green Spaces Can Make Our Communities Safer

Green spaces have been shown to boost mental health, reduce stroke risk, and mitigate heat-related deaths. And a recent study is adding to that list of benefits: Green spaces can also make our communities safer, particularly when it comes to gun violence. Researchers at the University of Michigan School of Public Health looked at 36 green spaces managed by Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, a nonprofit based in the Indiana capital. Using crime data from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, they found that these spaces reduced the incidence of an assault with a gun by a minimum of 6%, and in some cases by as much as 20%.

“This study proves something we have long believed: Investments in our neighborhoods — and specifically in green spaces — can play an outsized role in making communities safer,” Mayor Joe Hogsett told WRTV Indianapolis.