The nation in brief

NEW ORLEANS — The federal government is providing $2.3 million to study whether clearing up blighted property in New Orleans reduces teen and family violence.

Tulane University researchers from the schools of architecture and of public health and tropical medicine will work closely with the city and community groups to clean up 300 blighted properties across the city, the university said in a news release. In half of them, vacant lots will be cleared and maintained. In the other half, buildings will be fixed up, too.

Researchers will compare crime rates in those neighborhoods with similar areas where blighted lots and buildings are left untouched, lead investigator Katherine Theall said.

“To our knowledge, no other studies have examined the impact of blight remediation on youth and family violence, specifically,” said Theall, who holds the Cecile Usdin Professorship in Women’s Health. “However, research on other forms of neighborhood disorder suggest that it could have a substantial impact.”

The team’s hypothesis is that clearing lots and fixing buildings could leave fewer places to store illegal weapons and will reduce stress among neighborhood residents and improve their sense of community and social control, which may reduce social isolation and potential family violence.

The team will work with Columbia University epidemiologist Charles Branas, who has reported that gun assaults in Philadelphia dropped 9 percent in the 18 months after vacant lots were cleared in high-crime areas.