Blue street lighting could reduce crime and suicide rates

A discovery that was detected in Glasgow and about which there are several doubts.

The field of criminology tries, day by day, to be updated in all the factors and prevention measures that manage to avoid or diminish the criminality that plagues the streets and endangers public safety. That is why in some countries, several organizations that watch over security and prevention have opted to change their public lighting for blue ones.. The reason for this change is that, apparently, there are already several empirical results that point to the fact that streets lit with this type of light report a significant decrease in crime.

Below we detail this rare but important discovery.

Blue light seems to prevent suicide and crime

As far back as 2000, the Scottish city of Glasgow tried changing the color of the light emitted by the street lamps.. The experiment allowed some of the busiest avenues of that city to acquire different visual nuances, thanks to the change of the traditional white, orange or yellow lights for lights with blue tones. On this occasion, however, the aim was purely aesthetic.

A chance discovery in Glasgow

However, after a few weeks, the authorities noticed that in those regions where the blue light was installed, there was a considerable decrease in crimes and suicides. This discovery quickly became a legislative proposal aimed at reducing street crime and was adopted and applied in other countries. and was adopted and applied in other countries, despite the fact that at the time there was no scientific proof or conclusive studies linking this phenomenon to blue light.

For example, in 2005, the city of Tokyo, Japan decided to implement such a strategy in some of its streets, placing beacons with blue light and surprisingly, the Japanese authorities reported a 9% decrease in crime in those areas, the Japanese authorities reported a 9% decrease in crime in these areas.. Subsequently, a Japanese railroad company named Central Nipoon Expressway started to install in 2013 LED-type panels to project light of this color, in order to discourage those who try to commit suicide by throwing themselves on the tracks. Those responsible for this change claim that, after several years, this measure has reduced suicide attempts by 20%. Coincidence?

Studies and hypotheses

Although the decrease in crime seems to be directly related to the public blue light, there are still no scientific results to support this hypothesis, there are still no scientific results that conclusively support this theory.. 

As Tsuneo Suzuki, a professor at Keio University, points out, "There is still a lot of data to be analyzed to find out what the relationship is between blue lighting and its "calming effect" on people. What is clear is that blue lighting is unusual. So people may feel strange and avoid standing out, crimes and suicides go down with this type of lighting. There is a lot of research related to color psychology, and one of them investigated short wavelength blue light. It has been shown to be a potentially effective treatment for seasonal affective disorders (a type of depression linked to weather change). If further research supports the benefits of blue lighting, we could be in for a fantastic find. An inexpensive change that can help reduce crime rates in areas, as well as cases of suicide."

Other psychological effects of the color blue

Blue light is also attributed with a number of other characteristics and benefits:

1. It can cause insomnia

A study by Steven Lockey, a neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School, showed that exposure to blue light causes decreased sleep and even insomnia. demonstrated that being exposed to blue light causes decreased sleep and even insomnia since this light suppresses the synthesis of melatoninwhich is the sleep hormone

2. It increases the Heart rate and memory.

Gikes Vandewalle, a researcher at the University of Montreal, proved that blue light increases heart rate and improves memory.Using encephalograms, he observed that a person exposed to this light performed memorization tasks more efficiently because the responses of the frontal and parietal cortex improved.

3. Improved learning

According to a German chronobiologist, Dieter Kunz, by increasing the amount of blue in artificial light, we could increase performance and learning capacity in schools, offices and other indoor workplaces. in schools as well as in offices and other indoor workplaces. It could even improve the health of patients in hospitals.

Blue color psychology

It is worth remembering that among the positive qualities in the psychology of blue color we find that it is a friendly, sympathetic color that tends to inspire confidence.. It is a color that practically everyone likes and it is the color that we most associate with friendship, harmony and trust. It also represents the color of the divine and the eternal since we associate it with the color of the sky. Continuous experience is also associated with this color, it is the color of everything we want to remain and everything we want to be eternal. It is one of the colors most associated with peace (after white) since, for example, the UN flag is blue, as is the color of the helmets of its peacekeeping troops.

It is highly probable that in the future, in-depth research will be carried out to prove, with certainty, the link between the presence of blue lighting and a decrease in crime. This would provide a scientific basis and would make a major difference on all our streets.