New study finds link between green spaces and police violence

medicalxpress.com

8 points·PaulHoule··6 comments

> We believe that higher levels of greenness can reduce violence through four major mechanisms: reduced crime, improved short-term and long-term mental health, sending a signal that a place is well-cared for and increasing the use of outdoor spaces by nearby neighbors.

While I did not read the paywalled paper, it seems like a latent variable might also explain it: affluence and greenery might be positively correlated and police are less trigger-happy in rich neighbourhoods.

Per abstract, the effect is stronger in poor regions (precisely "across five levels of social deprivation"). They did control for affluence.

There are studies in Japan that showed train stations with blue lights installed have lower instances of attempted suicides than stations without blue lights [1]. There are also studies that indicate time in nature is associated with lower stress levels and blood pressure, regardless of income [2].

[1] https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190122-can-blue-lights-... [2] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/02/240207120426.h...

This seems tenuous. "This research was rigorous and comprehensive, with extensive controls to account for other variables," I should find the original publication because I have no idea how you could establish a causal link.

I'm not sure that I believe this study.

I guess there are tons of other confounders possible and quite difficult to control for (admittedly did not read the original study). I guess if you would take a green space and pour concrete on it just for a study to measure it against a controll, it would for sure also trigger police violence as the protesters will most likely also be quite unhappy.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com