Light for All Program
Solution types
Public Lighting
Problems addressed
Homicides
Effectiveness

Promising

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Promising

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Life periods served
People of all ages
Where the program was applied
Community (streets or community centers)
Country of application
Brazil
Description

This is a Brazilian federal government program created by Decree No. 4,873 of November 11, 2003. It was implemented nationwide to universalize the access to and use of electricity in rural and urban areas in cities without this type of electrification.

Impact evaluations

Although the objective of the program does not relate to improving public safety, an impact evaluation of the “Light for All” program concluded that rural areas where electrification and street lighting were implemented showed a high reduction in their homicide rates [1].
The study estimates that increasing electricity coverage from 0% to 100% reduces homicide rates by 92 per 100,000 inhabitants in public spaces. These findings are consistent with the assumption that lighting helps to better identify suspects, which increases the opportunity cost and deters crime.

Bibliographic reference

[1] Arvate, P., Falsete, F. O., Ribeiro, F. G. & Souza, A. P. (2018). Lighting and Homicides: Evaluating the Effect of an Electrification Policy in Rural Brazil on Violent Crime Reduction. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 34(4), 1047–1078. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10940-017-9365-6

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