In a study in Columbus, Ohio, researchers found that neighborhoods with more dogs had lower rates of homicide, robberies, and aggravated assaults than neighborhoods with fewer dogs, at least when residents had a high level of trust in each other is the case. Study lead author Nicolo Pinchak, a Ph.D. student in sociology at Ohio State University, said the results suggest that dog walkers “stare down the street” more, which can deter crime. “When people walk their dogs, you can say they’re patrolling the neighborhood,” Pinchak said. “If something isn’t right, or if there’s a suspicious outsider in the neighborhood, they’ll find out. That can act as a deterrent to crime.” The researchers examined Crime statistics from 2014 to 2016 for 595 census block groups (community equivalents) in the Columbus area. They obtained survey data from a marketing firm that in 2013 surveyed Columbus residents whether they had dogs in their homes. Finally, they used data from the Adolescent Health and Development Background Study to measure trust in others in the community. As part of the study, residents were asked to rate the extent to which they identified within their community that “people on the street can be trusted.” Pinchak said the study showed that trust among neighbours was an important factor in deterring crime, as it showed residents would help each other in the face of threats and had a sense of “collective efficacy” that allowed them to have a positive impact on their area. The results of the study showed that high-trust neighborhoods had lower rates of homicides, robberies, and aggravated assaults compared to low-trust neighborhoods. But among neighborhoods with high levels of trust, crime rates dropped more in neighborhoods with more dogs than in neighborhoods with fewer dogs. The study found that among high-trust neighborhoods, neighborhoods with more dogs had about two-thirds the robbery rate and about half the homicide rate as those with fewer dogs. Pinchak said it did have to do with walking the dog. The results suggest that a combination of trust and dog walking helps reduce street crime: crimes such as homicide and robbery tend to take place in public places, including streets and sidewalks. Pinchak said the study found that regardless of how much residents trusted each other, having more dogs in a community was also associated with fewer property crimes, such as burglary. The protective effects of dogs and trust were found even after accounting for a variety of other crime-related factors, including the proportion of young men in the vicinity, the degree of precariousness in the place of residence, and socioeconomic status. The study was published in the journal Social Forces.
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