In many cities, high land vacancy has contributed to negative outcomes including visual blight, loss of sense of community and safety, and high crime rates. Although studies show that vacant lot greening programs reduce crime rates in high-vacancy areas, little is known about the impacts of resident-owner-based vacant lot repurposing initiatives on crime. We evaluated the impacts of one such initiative, the Chicago Large Lot Program, on crime reduction. Through this program, qualified property owners could purchase one or two nearby city-owned vacant lots for one dollar each. Focusing on two study sites on the South and West sides of Chicago, we performed difference-in-differences analyses to examine whether blocks with at least one purchased ‘large lot’ (n = 234) showed greater reductions in various types of crime compared to matched control blocks without large lots (n = 702) in the years following program implementation (2015–2018). We found that, starting in the second year of implementation, the program contributed to significant reductions in overall crime density as well as a few types of crime. We also found that visual condition and care of purchased lots was associated with reduced crime density in one of our study sites where the percentage of purchased lots and mean condition-care rating were more than twice as much as those of the other site. Our findings support the usefulness of vacant land repurposing programs that transfer ownership to residents, and suggest that greening activities encouraged by these programs help improve neighborhood safety and quality of life.

在许多城市，高空缺率导致了不良后果，包括视觉缺陷，丧失社区意识和安全感以及犯罪率高。尽管研究表明，空地绿化计划降低了高空缺地区的犯罪率，但人们对以居民拥有者为基础的空地重新利用举措对犯罪的影响知之甚少。我们评估了一项这样的举措，即芝加哥大批量计划，对减少犯罪的影响。通过此计划，合格的财产所有者可以以一美元的价格购买一两个附近的城市空置地块。重点关注芝加哥南侧和西侧的两个研究地点，我们进行了差异分析，以检查与过去相比没有匹配批次（n = 702）的匹配控制块相比，具有至少一个购买的“大量”（n = 234）的块是否显示出更大程度的减少各种类型的犯罪。计划实施后（2015-2018年）。我们发现，从实施的第二年开始，该计划大大降低了总体犯罪密度以及某些类型的犯罪。我们还发现，在我们的一个研究站点中，视觉条件和所购地段的护理与犯罪密度的降低有关，在这些研究站点中，所购地段的百分比和平均状况护理等级是其他站点的两倍以上。我们的研究结果支持了将土地所有权转移给居民的闲置土地再利用计划的有用性，