[21boat]

Too many times we read about crimes and how much it cost to fight crime etc.

I remember when a front yard light was turned on to see who's at the door. Or, their not home the lights aren't on.

My questions are:

Has anybody read how much it roughly cost to deter/fight crime by keeping so many lights on?

Could a power plant or two be basically supporting and making electricity just because of crime and wasting that resource?

Simply how much juice and cost of electricity does crime cause.

[twinkiedooter]

It costs less than $5 a month to keep a typical yard light on all night. I use a newfangled CFL light bulb equivalent to a 100W Edison bulb so I probably spend less than $1 a month on this.

I think that lights on at night does deter crime in that the criminals don't want nosey neighbors watching them. I've belonged to many neighborhood crime watches in my time and I did find that when there are lights on at night there will always be nosey neighbors looking out their windows at 2AM, 3AM, 4AM etc. Criminals basically like the darkness to break into homes, etc.

Where I currently live I don't think there are enough lights on in my neighborhood. The single yard lights don't really do much good in certain areas. I like to keep my porch lights on even if I am home.