Yet another reason why we don’t need daylight saving time: NPR has reported that crime rates increase when we turn our clocks back an hour in the fall.

Yup. A study conducted by University of Virginia’s Jennifer Doleac and William and Mary’s Nicholas Sanders found that robbery rates increased 7 percent overall after we lose an hour of daylight in the fall, with a 27 percent increase in robberies in that one extra hour of darkness, Doleac told NPR.

The reason is not, however, an increase in angry people disgruntled with their new schedules (we don’t think.)

Since crime occurs disproportionately in the evening hours, an extra hour of darkness leaves more time for criminals to act.

The researchers were able to support the claim through comparison. In 2007-2008, Congress extended daylight saving ime by four weeks. Doleac and Sanders compared crime rates in cities nationwide during this time to crime rates for 2005-2006 in the same cities, and found that street-crime rates were higher during the extended DST years.

Daylight saving aside, we already lose plenty of sunlight in Boston when the seasons change. As of October 31, Boston saw approximately 10.5 hours of daylight, down from thirteen hours in August.

That leaves three hours of extra time for increased crime rates, decreased productivity and all other general discontent associated with shorter days.

But banishing daylight saving would not be an easy task. After the U.S.’s nearly 100-year, on-and-off run of laboriously turning clocks backward and forward, changing the tradition would likely cause a lot of confusion for participating states.

There’s also the argument that it saves energy during the summertime, when extra daylight means less use of indoor electric lighting, though reports in recent years have shown that to be untrue.

Meanwhile, as we enter yet another season of decreased daylight, try to stay in areas with streetlights during that extra hour. And stock up on Vitamin D supplements.