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Reducing violence by transforming neighborhoods: a natural experiment in Medellín, Colombia
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Reducing violence by transforming neighborhoods: a natural experiment in Medellín, Colombia

Magdalena Cerdá, Jeffrey D Morenoff, Ben B Hansen, Kimberly J Tessari Hicks, Luis F Duque, Alexandra Restrepo and Ana V Diez-Roux
American journal of epidemiology, v 175(10), pp 1045-1053
15 May 2012
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwr428
PMID: 22472117
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
url
https://academic.oup.com/aje/article-pdf/175/10/1045/201684/kwr428.pdfView
Published, Version of Record (VoR) Open
url
https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwr428View
Published, Version of Record (VoR) Open

Abstract

Adolescent Adult Bayes Theorem Child Colombia Economic Development Female Follow-Up Studies Health Surveys Homicide - prevention & control Homicide - statistics & numerical data Humans Linear Models Logistic Models Male Middle Aged Poverty Areas Propensity Score Residence Characteristics Transportation Urban Health Violence - prevention & control Violence - statistics & numerical data Young Adult
Neighborhood-level interventions provide an opportunity to better understand the impact that neighborhoods have on health. In 2004, municipal authorities in Medellín, Colombia, built a public transit system to connect isolated low-income neighborhoods to the city's urban center. Transit-oriented development was accompanied by municipal investment in neighborhood infrastructure. In this study, the authors examined the effects of this exogenous change in the built environment on violence. Neighborhood conditions and violence were assessed in intervention neighborhoods (n = 25) and comparable control neighborhoods (n = 23) before (2003) and after (2008) completion of the transit project, using a longitudinal sample of 466 residents and homicide records from the Office of the Public Prosecutor. Baseline differences between these groups were of the same magnitude as random assignment of neighborhoods would have generated, and differences that remained after propensity score matching closely resembled imbalances produced by paired randomization. Permutation tests were used to estimate differential change in the outcomes of interest in intervention neighborhoods versus control neighborhoods. The decline in the homicide rate was 66% greater in intervention neighborhoods than in control neighborhoods (rate ratio = 0.33, 95% confidence interval: 0.18, 0.61), and resident reports of violence decreased 75% more in intervention neighborhoods (odds ratio = 0.25, 95% confidence interval 0.11, 0.67). These results show that interventions in neighborhood physical infrastructure can reduce violence.

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92 citations in Web of Science
103 citations in Scopus

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
International collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
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