Op-Ed: How cities can break the link between heat and crime and save lives

In a commentary, NTU Asst Prof Tang Cheng Keat, Lyft economist Kilian Heilmann, and University of Southern California provost professor of economics Matthew E. Kahn wrote about how higher temperatures could lead to more crime – a link that was uncovered in a recently published study by the three authors, who used crime and temperature data from Los Angeles to estimate the relationship between heat and crime. The study also found that the heat-crime relationship is much stronger in neighbourhoods with high poverty. The authors suggested experimenting with novel solutions that beat the heat and fight crime at the same time to “not only will improve quality of life in our city’s poorest neighbourhoods but also will help Los Angeles to emerge as a leader in adaptation to cope with some of the scary consequences of climate change”.

Read the article here.

 Photo: Pedro Marroquin on Unsplash