Anotace:
China's new-type urbanization surfaces as a pivotal strategic framework in urban development during the new era in China, enhancing urban competitiveness through high-quality economic, social, ecological, and other dimensions. Nonetheless, the societal implications of new-type urbanization policy on crime suppression, in other words, its role in fortifying urban security competitiveness, have been scarcely scrutinized. Considering social stability stands as the cornerstone for cities to sustain long-term competitiveness, to elucidate the impact of new-type urbanization on social stability, we evaluate the causal effect of new-type urbanization policies on regional crime and its mechanism by employing employed data from 209 prefecture-level cities in China spanning the period from 2014 to 2021 and utilizing a time-varying difference-in-differences model. Additionally, a moderation effect model and simple slope analysis are utilized to discern the mechanism that influences the effectiveness of these policies. The findings indicate that the new-type urbanization policy significantly suppresses crime, demonstrating a crime-reducing effect. Considering endogeneity problems, sample selection bias, and interference from random factors, a series of robustness tests, such as establishing urbanization levels in China based on nighttime lights, confirm its high robustness. Furthermore, the crime-reducing effect of the new-type urbanization policy primarily manifests in the eastern regions. Taking PM2.5 as an example, air pollution could weaken the crime-reducing effect of the new-type urbanization policy. Finally, it would contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the societal policy implications of China’s new-type urbanization in crime control. It would also offer valuable insights for fostering improving urban security competitiveness through inclusive and sustainable urbanization in developing countries.