In any case, I don't there is much point in keeping the lights on throughout the entire night, but it might be beneficial to (especially during winter months at higher latitudes) light busy areas in cities for part of the evening.
There was an article I stumbled across a while back written by someone who was fed up with the amount of crime that occurred just outside his window in an urban neighborhood.
His window just happened to be at the darkest part on the street where shady business could be done in the shadows. Drug deals, prostitution, etc. He'd overhear all of it because of the lack of light on the street by his window.
I don't remember exactly what the solution was but it involved getting the area lighted somehow.
Surely it didn't prevent the crimes from happening, just relocating it elsewhere.
But that's the point. As long as the paths people stick to at night are well-lit, they can avoid the dark shadows where crime is more likely occurring. If you leave entire blocks darkened, you make those blocks less safe. Stumbling upon a crime in-progress is a good way to get killed just for being a witness.
Crime is a problem indeed, but I still feel like adding more lighting in hopes of solving this is not really the solution, and like you say, just moving the problem around.
I think lighting very busy areas (think railway stations, main streets in cities) is a good idea in general, but how many areas are really busy at night? And most people aren't outside in the middle of the night or early morning, so most lights could probably be shutdown after the evening is over?
Wish I could find it, I tried briefly but failed miserably. Was kind of hoping someone would recognize it from my comment and be able to provide a link as I wouldn't mind re-reading it myself.
That's highly debatable (sure, it may feel safer): https://www.darksky.org/light-pollution/lighting-crime-and-s...
In any case, I don't there is much point in keeping the lights on throughout the entire night, but it might be beneficial to (especially during winter months at higher latitudes) light busy areas in cities for part of the evening.