Public school closures are increasing in number and size in U.S. cities. In response, parents, teachers, and public school advocates argue that closures carry negative consequences for multiple institutions across a wide set of outcomes. One such institution is the local neighborhood, and a negative consequence that is frequently raised is increased crime. I test this claim by using the 2013 Chicago mass school closure as a case study. Rather than conceiving of a school closure as a binary event (closed or not closed) I break it out according to a school’s status after closure: vacant, repurposed, and merged with an existing school. I find that vacancy and repurposing into a nonschool are associated with decreased crime. In contrast, merging a closed school with an existing school is associated with increased crime. The vacancy and repurposing effects are spatiotemporally localized, concentrated in the 75-meter area surrounding the school and disappearing after a year, whereas the student merger effect persisted over time across larger spatial scales. My results suggest that the relationship between closure and neighborhood crime is not straightforward, varying by postclosure land use status and spatiotemporal factors.

中文翻译：

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公立学校停课对犯罪的影响：2013年芝加哥大规模学校停课的案例

在美国城市，公立学校关闭的数量和规模都在增加。作为回应，家长，教师和公立学校的拥护者认为，关闭对许多机构产生了广泛的负面影响。这样的机构之一就是当地社区，经常引起的负面后果是犯罪增加。我通过将2013年芝加哥大众学校关闭作为案例研究来检验这一说法。我不是将关闭学校视为一个二进制事件（关闭或未关闭），而是根据关闭后学校的状况将其分解：空置，重新定位并与现有学校合并。我发现空缺和改读非学校用途与犯罪减少有关。相反，将封闭式学校与现有学校合并会增加犯罪率。空缺和重新利用的影响是时空局部的，集中在学校周围的75米区域，一年后消失，而学生合并的影响则随着时间的推移在更大的空间范围内持续存在。我的研究结果表明，封闭与邻里犯罪之间的关系并不直接，因封闭后土地使用状况和时空因素而异。