Abstract

Objectives: Research on violence around schools has produced inconsistent findings, partly because of methodological differences. This study advances the evidence using a novel open-data source. Methods: Police-recorded assault and personal robbery data from nine large US cities were analyzed using fixed-effects models of daily census block-group crime counts to test five hypotheses. Results can be interpreted causally under reasonable assumptions. Results: Public secondary schools increased assault counts on school days but not on non-school weekdays, with larger effects for larger schools. Effects for elementary schools were weaker and less consistent. School days increased assaults during school-related hours but not during evenings or overnight, although effects varied across cities. No consistent relationships were found for personal robbery. Conclusions: The findings are consistent with the routine activities approach and suggest that schools help shape the spatio-temporal distribution of neighborhood violence. Open data can facilitate multi-city research on crime and place.

Keywords: violence, schools, routine activities, open data, causal inference

How to Cite:

Ashby, M., (2026) “Is There More Violence Around Schools? Five Tests Across Nine Cities”, Law & Criminology Journal 3(1), 213-262. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/lcj.100817