broken window essay

Broken Windows Theory of Criminology

Charlotte Ruhl

Research Assistant & Psychology Graduate

BA (Hons) Psychology, Harvard University

Charlotte Ruhl, a psychology graduate from Harvard College, boasts over six years of research experience in clinical and social psychology. During her tenure at Harvard, she contributed to the Decision Science Lab, administering numerous studies in behavioral economics and social psychology.

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Saul McLeod, PhD

Editor-in-Chief for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MRes, PhD, University of Manchester

Saul McLeod, PhD., is a qualified psychology teacher with over 18 years of experience in further and higher education. He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology.

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The Broken Windows Theory of Criminology suggests that visible signs of disorder and neglect, such as broken windows or graffiti, can encourage further crime and anti-social behavior in an area, as they signal a lack of order and law enforcement.

Key Takeaways

• The Broken Windows theory, first studied by Philip Zimbardo and introduced by George Kelling and James Wilson, holds that visible indicators of disorder, such as vandalism, loitering, and broken windows, invite criminal activity and should be prosecuted.
• This form of policing has been tested in several real-world settings. It was heavily enforced in the mid-1990s under New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, Lowell, Massachusetts, and the Netherlands later experimented with this theory.
• Although initial research proved to be promising, this theory has been met with several criticisms. Specifically, many scholars point to the fact that there is no clear causal relationship between lack of order and crime. Rather, crime going down when order goes up is merely a coincidental correlation.
• Additionally, this theory has opened the doors for racial and class bias, especially in the form of stop and frisk.

The United States has the largest prison population in the world and the highest per-capita incarceration rate. In 2016, 2.3 million people were incarcerated, despite a massive decline in both violent and property crimes (Morgan & Kena, 2019).

These statistics provide some insight into why crime regulation and mass incarceration are such hot topics today, and many scholars, lawyers, and politicians have devised theories and strategies to try to promote safety within society.

One such model is broken windows policing, which was first brought to light by American psychologist Philip Zimbardo (famous for his Stanford Prison Experiment) and further publicized by James Wilson and George Kelling. Since its inception, this theory has been both widely used and widely criticized.

What Is the Broken Windows Theory?

The broken windows theory states that any visible signs of crime and civil disorder, such as broken windows (hence, the name of the theory), vandalism, loitering, public drinking, jaywalking, and transportation fare evasion, create an urban environment that promotes even more crime and disorder (Wilson & Kelling, 1982).

As such, policing these misdemeanors will help create an ordered and lawful society in which all citizens feel safe and crime rates, including violent crime rates, are low.

Broken windows policing tries to regulate low-level crime to prevent widespread disorder from occurring. If these small crimes are greatly reduced, then neighborhoods will appear to be more cared for.

The hope is that if these visible displays of disorder and neglect are reduced, violent crimes might go down too, leading to an overall reduction in crime and an increase in public safety.

Source: Hinkle, J. C., & Weisburd, D. (2008). The irony of broken windows policing: A micro-place study of the relationship between disorder, focused police crackdowns and fear of crime. Journal of Criminal Justice, 36(6), 503-512.

Academics justify broken windows policing from a theoretical standpoint because of three specific factors that help explain why the state of the urban environment might affect crime levels:

• social norms and conformity;
• the presence or lack of routine monitoring;
• social signaling and signal crime.

In a typical urban environment, social norms and monitoring are not clearly known. As a result, individuals will look for certain signs and signals that provide both insight into the social norms of the area as well as the risk of getting caught violating those norms.

Those who support the broken windows theory argue that one of those signals is the area’s general appearance. In other words, an ordered environment, one that is safe and has very little lawlessness, sends the message that this neighborhood is routinely monitored and criminal acts are not tolerated.

On the other hand, a disordered environment, one that is not as safe and contains visible acts of lawlessness (such as broken windows, graffiti, and litter), sends the message that this neighborhood is not routinely monitored and individuals would be much more likely to get away with committing a crime.

With a decreased likelihood of detection, individuals would be much more inclined to engage in criminal behavior, both violent and nonviolent, in this type of area.

As you might be able to tell, a major assumption that this theory makes is that an environment’s landscape communicates to its residents in some way.

For example, proponents of this theory would argue that a broken window signals to potential criminals that a community is unable to defend itself against an uptick in criminal activity. It is not the literal broken window that is a direct cause for concern, but more so the figurative meaning that is ascribed to this situation.

It symbolizes a vulnerable and disjointed community that cannot handle crime – opening the doors to all kinds of unwanted activity to occur.

In neighborhoods that do have a strong sense of social cohesion among their residents, these broken windows are fixed (both literally and figuratively), giving these areas a sense of control over their communities.

By fixing these windows, undesired individuals and behaviors are removed, allowing civilians to feel safer (Herbert & Brown, 2006).

However, in environments in which these broken windows are left unfixed, residents no longer see their communities as tight-knit, safe spaces and will avoid spending time in communal spaces (in parks, at local stores, on the street blocks) so as to avoid violent attacks from strangers.

Additionally, when these broken windows are not fixed, it also symbolizes a lack of informal social control. Informal social control refers to the actions that regulate behavior, such as conforming to social norms and intervening as a bystander when a crime is committed, that are independent of the law.

Informal social control is important to help reduce unruly behavior. Scholars argue that, under certain circumstances, informal social control is more effective than laws.

And some will even go so far as to say that nonresidential spaces, such as corner stores and businesses, have a responsibility to actually maintain this informal social control by way of constant surveillance and supervision.

One such scholar is Jane Jacobs, a Canadian-American author and journalist who believed sidewalks were a crucial vehicle for promoting public safety.

Jacobs can be considered one of the original pioneers of the broken windows theory. One of her most famous books, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, describes how local businesses and stores provide a necessary sense of having “eyes on the street,” which promotes safety and helps to regulate crime (Jacobs, 1961).

Although the idea that community involvement, from both residents and non-residents, can make a big difference in how safe a neighborhood is perceived to be, Wilson and Keeling argue that the police are the key to maintaining order.

As major proponents of broken windows policing, they hold that formal social control, in addition to informal social control, is crucial for actually regulating crime.

Although different people have different approaches to the implementation of broken windows (i.e., cleaning up the environment and informal social control vs. an increase in policing misdemeanor crimes), the end goal is the same: crime reduction.

This idea, which largely serves as the backbone of the broken windows theory, was first introduced by Philip Zimbardo.

Examples of Broken Windows Policing

1969: philip zimbardo’s introduction of broken windows in nyc and la.

In 1969, Stanford psychologist Philip Zimbardo ran a social experiment in which he abandoned two cars that had no license plates and the hoods up in very different locations.

The first was a predominantly poor, high-crime neighborhood in the Bronx, and the second was a fairly affluent area of Palo Alto, California. He then observed two very different outcomes.

After just ten minutes, the car in the Bronx was attacked and vandalized. A family first approached the vehicle and removed the radiator and battery. Within the first twenty-four hours after Zimbardo left the car, everything valuable had been stripped and removed from the car.

Afterward, random acts of destruction began – the windows were smashed, seats were ripped up, and the car began to serve as a playground for children in the community.

On the contrary, the car that was left in Palo Alto remained untouched for more than a week before Zimbardo eventually went up to it and smashed the vehicle with a sledgehammer.

Only after he had done this did other people join the destruction of the car (Zimbardo, 1969). Zimbardo concluded that something that is clearly abandoned and neglected can become a target for vandalism.

But Kelling and Wilson extended this finding when they introduced the concept of broken windows policing in the early 1980s.

This initial study cascaded into a body of research and policy that demonstrated how in areas such as the Bronx, where theft, destruction, and abandonment are more common, vandalism would occur much faster because there are no opposing forces to this type of behavior.

As a result, such forces, primarily the police, are needed to intervene and reduce these types of behavior and remove such indicators of disorder.

1982: Kelling and Wilson’s Follow-Up Article

Thirteen years after Zimbardo’s study was published, criminologists George Kelling and James Wilson published an article in The Atlantic that applied Zimbardo’s findings to entire communities.

Kelling argues that Zimbardo’s findings were not unique to the Bronx and Palo Alto areas. Rather, he claims that, regardless of the neighborhood, a ripple effect can occur once disorder begins as things get extremely out of hand and control becomes increasingly hard to maintain.

The article introduces the broader idea that now lies at the heart of the broken windows theory: a broken window, or other signs of disorder, such as loitering, graffiti, litter, or drug use, can send the message that a neighborhood is uncared for, sending an open invitation for crime to continue to occur, even violent crimes.

The solution, according to Kelling and Wilson and many other proponents of this theory, is to target these very low-level crimes, restore order to the neighborhood, and prevent more violent crimes from happening.

A strengthened and ordered community is equipped to fight and deter crime (because a sense of order creates the perception that crimes go easily detected). As such, it is necessary for police departments to focus on cleaning up the streets as opposed to putting all of their energy into fighting high-level crimes.

In addition to Zimbardo’s 1969 study, Kelling and Wilson’s article was also largely inspired by New Jersey’s “Safe and Clean Neighborhoods Program” that was implemented in the mid-1970s.

As part of the program, police officers were taken out of their patrol cars and were asked to patrol on foot. The aim of this approach was to make citizens feel more secure in their neighborhoods.

Although crime was not reduced as a result, residents took fewer steps to protect themselves from crime (such as locking their doors). Reducing fear is a huge goal of broken-windows policing.

As Kelling and Wilson state in their article, the fear of being bothered by disorderly people (such as drunks, rowdy teens, or loiterers) is enough to motivate them to withdraw from the community.

But if we can find a way to make people feel less fear (namely by reducing low-level crimes), then they will be more involved in their communities, creating a higher degree of informal social control and deterring all forms of criminal activity.

Although Kelling and Wilson’s article was largely theoretical, the practice of broken windows policing was implemented in the early 1990s under New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. And Kelling himself was there to play a crucial role.

Early 1990s: Bratton and Giuliani’s implementation in NYC

In 1985, the New York City Transit Authority hired George Kelling as a consultant, and he was also later hired by both the Boston and Los Angeles police departments to provide advice on the most effective method for policing (Fagan & Davies, 2000).

Five years later, in 1990, William J. Bratton became the head of the New York City Transit Police. In his role, Bratton cracked down on fare evasion and implemented faster methods to process those who were arrested.

He attributed a lot of his decisions as head of the transit police to Kelling’s work. Bratton was just the first to begin to implement such measures, but once Rudy Giuliani was elected as mayor in 1993, tactics to reduce crime began to really take off (Vedantam et al., 2016).

Together, Giuliani and Bratton first focused on cleaning up the subway system, where Bratton’s area of expertise lay. They sent hundreds of police officers into subway stations throughout the city to catch anyone who was jumping the turnstiles and evading the fair.

And this was just the beginning.

All throughout the 90s, Giuliani increased misdemeanor arrests in all pockets of the city. They arrested numerous people for smoking marijuana in public, spraying graffiti on walls, selling cigarettes, and they shut down many of the city’s night spots for illegal dancing.

Conveniently, during this time, crime was also falling in the city and the murder rate was rapidly decreasing, earning Giuliani re-election in 1997 (Vedantam et al., 2016).

To further support the outpouring success of this new approach to regulating crime, George Kelling ran a follow-up study on the efficacy of broken windows policing and found that in neighborhoods where there was a stark increase in misdemeanor arrests (evidence of broken windows policing), there was also a sharp decline in crime (Kelling & Sousa, 2001).

Because this seemed like an incredibly successful mode, cities around the world began to adopt this approach.

Late 1990s: Albuquerque’s Safe Streets Program

In Albuquerque, New Mexico, a Safe Streets Program was implemented to deter and reduce unsafe driving and crime rates by increasing surveillance in these areas.

Specifically, the traffic enforcement program influenced saturation patrols (that operated over a large geographic area), sobriety checkpoints, follow-up patrols, and freeway speed enforcement.

The effectiveness of this program was analyzed in a study done by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (Stuser, 2001).

Results demonstrated that both Part I crimes, including homicide, forcible rape, robbery, and theft, and Part II crimes, such as sex offenses, kidnapping, stolen property, and fraud, experienced a total decline of 5% during the 1996-1997 calendar year in which this program was implemented.

Additionally, this program resulted in a 9% decline in both robbery and burglary, a 10% decline in assault, a 17% decline in kidnapping, a 29% decline in homicide, and a 36% decline in arson.

With these promising statistics came a 14% increase in arrests. Thus, the researchers concluded that traffic enforcement programs can deter criminal activity. This approach was initially inspired by both Zimbardo’s and Kelling and Wilson’s work on broken windows and provides evidence that when policing and surveillance increase, crime rates go down.

2005: Lowell, Massachusetts

Back on the east coast, Harvard University and Suffolk University researchers worked with local police officers to pinpoint 34 different crime hotspots in Lowell, Massachusetts. In half of these areas, local police officers and authorities cleaned up trash from the streets, fixed streetlights, expanded aid for the homeless, and made more misdemeanor arrests.

There was no change made in the other half of the areas (Johnson, 2009).

The researchers found that in areas in which police service was changed, there was a 20% reduction in calls to the police. And because the researchers implemented different ways of changing the city’s landscape, from cleaning the physical environment to increasing arrests, they were able to compare the effectiveness of these various approaches.

Although many proponents of the broken windows theory argue that increasing policing and arrests is the solution to reducing crime, as the previous study in Albuquerque illustrates. Others insist that more arrests do not solve the problem but rather changing the physical landscape should be the desired means to an end.

And this is exactly what Brenda Bond of Suffolk University and Anthony Braga of Harvard Kennedy’s School of Government found. Cleaning up the physical environment was revealed to be very effective, misdemeanor arrests were less so, and increasing social services had no impact.

This study provided strong evidence for the effectiveness of the broken windows theory in reducing crime by decreasing disorder, specifically in the context of cleaning up the physical and visible neighborhood (Braga & Bond, 2008).

2007: Netherlands

The United States is not the only country that sought to implement the broken windows ideology. Beginning in 2007, researchers from the University of Groningen ran several studies that looked at whether existing visible disorder increased crimes such as theft and littering.

Similar to the Lowell experiment, where half of the areas were ordered and the other half disorders, Keizer and colleagues arranged several urban areas in two different ways at two different times. In one condition, the area was ordered, with an absence of graffiti and littering, but in the other condition, there was visible evidence for disorder.

The team found that in disorderly environments, people were much more likely to litter, take shortcuts through a fenced-off area, and take an envelope out of an open mailbox that was clearly labeled to contain five Euros (Keizer et al., 2008).

This study provides additional support for the effect perceived order can have on the likelihood of criminal activity. But this broken windows theory is not restricted to the criminal legal setting.

2008: Tokyo, Japan

The local government of Adachi Ward, Tokyo, which once had Tokyo’s highest crime rates, introduced the “Beautiful Windows Movement” in 2008 (Hino & Chronopoulos, 2021).

The intervention was twofold. The program, on one hand, drawing on the broken windows theory, promoted policing to prevent minor crimes and disorder. On the other hand, in partnership with citizen volunteers, the authorities launched a project to make Adachi Ward literally beautiful.

Following 11 years of implementation, the reduction in crime was undeniable. Felony had dropped from 122 in 2008 to 35 in 2019, burglary from 104 to 24, and bicycle theft from 93 to 45.

This Japanese case study seemed to further highlight the advantages associated with translating the broken widow theory into both aggressive policing and landscape altering.

Other Domains Relevant to Broken Windows

There are several other fields in which the broken windows theory is implicated. The first is real estate. Broken windows (and other similar signs of disorder) can indicate low real estate value, thus deterring investors (Hunt, 2015).

As such, some recommend that the real estate industry adopt the broken windows theory to increase value in an apartment, house, or even an entire neighborhood. They might increase in value by fixing windows and cleaning up the area (Harcourt & Ludwig, 2006).

Consequently, this might lead to gentrification – the process by which poorer urban landscapes are changed as wealthier individuals move in.

Although many would argue that this might help the economy and provide a safe area for people to live, this often displaces low-income families and prevents them from moving into areas they previously could not afford.

This is a very salient topic in the United States as many areas are becoming gentrified, and regardless of whether you support this process, it is important to understand how the real estate industry is directly connected to the broken windows theory.

Another area that broken windows are related to is education. Here, the broken windows theory is used to promote order in the classroom. In this setting, the students replace those who engage in criminal activity.

The idea is that students are signaled by disorder or others breaking classroom rules and take this as an open invitation to further contribute to the disorder.

As such, many schools rely on strict regulations such as punishing curse words and speaking out of turn, forcing strict dress and behavioral codes, and enforcing specific classroom etiquette.

Similar to the previous studies, from 2004 to 2006, Stephen Plank and colleagues conducted a study that measured the relationship between the physical appearance of mid-Atlantic schools and student behavior.

They determined that variables such as fear, social order, and informal social control were statistically significantly associated with the physical conditions of the school setting.

Thus, the researchers urged educators to tend to the school’s physical appearance to help promote a productive classroom environment in which students are less likely to propagate disordered behavior (Plank et al., 2009).

Despite there being a large body of research that seems to support the broken windows theory, this theory does not come without its stark criticisms, especially in the past few years.

Major Criticisms

At the turn of the 21st century, the rhetoric surrounding broken windows drastically shifted from praise to criticism. Scholars scrutinized conclusions that were drawn, questioned empirical methodologies, and feared that this theory was morphing into a vehicle for discrimination.

Misinterpreting the Relationship Between Disorder and Crime

A major criticism of this theory argues that it misinterprets the relationship between disorder and crime by drawing a causal chain between the two.

Instead, some researchers argue that a third factor, collective efficacy, or the cohesion among residents combined with shared expectations for the social control of public space, is the causal agent explaining crime rates (Sampson & Raudenbush, 1999).

A 2019 meta-analysis that looked at 300 studies revealed that disorder in a neighborhood does not directly cause its residents to commit more crimes (O’Brien et al., 2019).

The researchers examined studies that tested to what extent disorder led people to commit crimes, made them feel more fearful of crime in their neighborhoods, and affected their perceptions of their neighborhoods.

In addition to drawing out several methodological flaws in the hundreds of studies that were included in the analysis, O’Brien and colleagues found no evidence that the disorder and crime are causally linked.

Similarly, in 2003, David Thatcher published a paper in the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology arguing that broken windows policing was not as effective as it appeared to be on the surface.

Crime rates dropping in areas such as New York City were not a direct result of this new law enforcement tactic. Those who believed this were simply conflating correlation and causality.

Rather, Thatcher claims, lower crime rates were the result of various other factors, none of which fell into the category of ramping up misdemeanor arrests (Thatcher, 2003).

In terms of the specific factors that were actually playing a role in the decrease in crime, some scholars point to the waning of the cocaine epidemic and strict enforcement of the Rockefeller drug laws that contributed to lower crime rates (Metcalf, 2006).

Other explanations include trends such as New York City’s economic boom in the late 1990s that helped directly contribute to the decrease of crime much more so than enacting the broken windows policy (Sridhar, 2006).

Additionally, cities that did not implement broken windows also saw a decrease in crime (Harcourt, 2009), and similarly, crime rates weren’t decreasing in other cities that adopted the broken windows policy (Sridhar, 2006).

Specifically, Bernard Harcourt and Jens Ludwig examined the Department of Housing and Urban Development program that placed inner-city project residents into housing in more orderly neighborhoods.

Contrary to the broken windows theory, which would predict that these tenants would now commit fewer crimes once relocated into more ordered neighborhoods, they found that these individuals continued to commit crimes at the same rate.

This study provides clear evidence why broken windows may not be the causal agent in crime reduction (Harcourt & Ludwig, 2006).

Falsely Assuming Why Crimes Are Committed

The broken windows theory also assumes that in more orderly neighborhoods, there is more informal social control. As a result, people understand that there is a greater likelihood of being caught committing a crime, so they shy away from engaging in such activity.

However, people don’t only commit crimes because of the perceived likelihood of detection. Rather, many individuals who commit crimes do so because of factors unrelated to or without considering the repercussions.

Poverty, social pressure, mental illness, and more are often driving factors that help explain why a person might commit a crime, especially a misdemeanor such as theft or loitering.

Resulting in Racial and Class Bias

One of the leading criticisms of the broken windows theory is that it leads to both racial and class bias. By giving the police broad discretion to define disorder and determine who engages in disorderly acts allows them to freely criminalize communities of color and groups that are socioeconomically disadvantaged (Roberts, 1998).

For example, Sampson and Raudenbush found that in two neighborhoods with equal amounts of graffiti and litter, people saw more disorder in neighborhoods with more African Americans.

The researchers found that individuals associate African Americans and other minority groups with concepts of crime and disorder more so than their white counterparts (Sampson & Raudenbush, 2004).

This can lead to unfair policing in areas that are predominantly people of color. In addition, those who suffer from financial instability and may be of minority status are more likely to commit crimes in the first place.

Thus, they are simply being punished for being poor as opposed to being given resources to assist them. Further, many acts that are actually legal but are deemed disorderly by police officers are targeted in public settings but aren’t targeted when the same acts are conducted in private settings.

As a result, those who don’t have access to private spaces, such as homeless people, are unnecessarily criminalized.

It follows then that by policing these small misdemeanors, or oftentimes actions that aren’t even crimes at all, police departments are fighting poverty crimes as opposed to fighting to provide individuals with the resources that will make crime no longer a necessity.

Morphing into Stop and Frisk

Stop and frisk, a brief non-intrusive police stop of a suspect is an extremely controversial approach to policing. But critics of the broken windows theory argue that it has morphed into this program.

With broken-windows policing, officers have too much discretion when determining who is engaging in criminal activity and will search people for drugs and weapons without probable cause.

However, this method is highly unsuccessful. In 2008, the police made nearly 250,000 stops in New York, but only one-fifteenth of one percent of those stops resulted in finding a gun (Vedantam et al., 2016).

And three years later, in 2011, more than 685,000 people were stopped in New York. Of those, nine out of ten were found to be completely innocent (Dunn & Shames, 2020).

Thus, not only does this give officers free reins to stop and frisk minority populations at disproportionately high levels, but it also is not effective in drawing out crime.

Although broken windows policing might seem effective from a theoretical perspective, major valid criticisms put the practical application of this theory into question.

Given its controversial nature, broken windows policing is not explicitly used today to regulate crime in most major cities. However, there are still traces of this theory that remain.

Cities such as Ferguson, Missouri, are heavily policed and the city issues thousands of warrants a year on broken window types of crimes – from parking infractions to traffic violations.

And the racial and class biases that result from such an approach to law enforcement have definitely not disappeared.

Crime regulation is not easy, but the broken windows theory provides an approach to reducing offenses and maintaining order in society.

What is the broken glass principle?

The broken glass principle, also known as the Broken Windows Theory, posits that visible signs of disorder, like broken glass, can foster further crime and anti-social behavior by signaling a lack of regulation and community care in an area.

How does social context affect crime according to the broken windows theory?

The Broken Windows Theory proposes that the social context, specifically visible signs of disorder like vandalism or littering, can encourage further crime.

It suggests that these signs indicate a lack of community control and care, which can foster a climate of disregard for laws and social norms, leading to more severe crimes over time.

How did broken windows theory change policing?

The Broken Windows Theory influenced policing by promoting proactive attention to minor crimes and maintaining urban environments.

It led to strategies like “zero-tolerance” or “quality-of-life” policing, focusing on reducing visible signs of disorder to prevent more serious crime.

Braga, A. A., & Bond, B. J. (2008). Policing crime and disorder hot spots: A randomized controlled trial. Criminology, 46(3), 577-607.

Dunn, C., & Shames, M. (2020). Stop-and-Frisk data . Retrieved from https://www.nyclu.org/en/stop-and-frisk-data

Fagan, J., & Davies, G. (2000). Street stops and broken windows: Terry, race, and disorder in New York City. Fordham Urb. LJ , 28, 457.

Harcourt, B. E. (2009). Illusion of order: The false promise of broken windows policing . Harvard University Press.

Harcourt, B. E., & Ludwig, J. (2006). Broken windows: New evidence from New York City and a five-city social experiment. U. Chi. L. Rev., 73 , 271.

Herbert, S., & Brown, E. (2006). Conceptions of space and crime in the punitive neoliberal city. Antipode, 38 (4), 755-777.

Hunt, B. (2015). “Broken Windows” theory can be applied to real estate regulation- Realty Times. Retrieved from https://realtytimes.com/agentnews/agentadvice/item/40700-20151208-broken-windws-theory-can-be-applied-to-real-estate-regulation

Jacobs, J. (1961). The Death and Life of Great American Cities . Vintage.

Johnson, C. Y. (2009). Breakthrough on “broken windows.” Boston Globe.

Keizer, K., Lindenberg, S., & Steg, L. (2008). The spreading of disorder. Science, 322 (5908), 1681-1685.

Kelling, G. L., & Sousa, W. H. (2001). Do police matter?: An analysis of the impact of new york city’s police reforms . CCI Center for Civic Innovation at the Manhattan Institute.

Metcalf, S. (2006). Rudy Giuliani, American president? Retrieved from https://slate.com/culture/2006/05/rudy-giuliani-american-president.html

Morgan, R. E., & Kena, G. (2019). Criminal victimization, 2018. Bureau of Justice Statistics , 253043.

O”Brien, D. T., Farrell, C., & Welsh, B. C. (2019). Looking through broken windows: The impact of neighborhood disorder on aggression and fear of crime is an artifact of research design. Annual Review of Criminology, 2 , 53-71.

Plank, S. B., Bradshaw, C. P., & Young, H. (2009). An application of “broken-windows” and related theories to the study of disorder, fear, and collective efficacy in schools. American Journal of Education, 115 (2), 227-247.

Roberts, D. E. (1998). Race, vagueness, and the social meaning of order-maintenance policing. J. Crim. L. & Criminology, 89 , 775.

Sampson, R. J., & Raudenbush, S. W. (1999). Systematic social observation of public spaces: A new look at disorder in urban neighborhoods. American Journal of Sociology, 105 (3), 603-651.

Sampson, R. J., & Raudenbush, S. W. (2004). Seeing disorder: Neighborhood stigma and the social construction of “broken windows”. Social psychology quarterly, 67 (4), 319-342.

Sridhar, C. R. (2006). Broken windows and zero tolerance: Policing urban crimes. Economic and Political Weekly , 1841-1843.

Stuster, J. (2001). Albuquerque police department’s Safe Streets program (No. DOT-HS-809-278). Anacapa Sciences, inc.

Thacher, D. (2003). Order maintenance reconsidered: Moving beyond strong causal reasoning. J. Crim. L. & Criminology, 94 , 381.

Vedantam, S., Benderev, C., Boyle, T., Klahr, R., Penman, M., & Schmidt, J. (2016). How a theory of crime and policing was born, and went terribly wrong . Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2016/11/01/500104506/broken-windows-policing-and-the-origins-of-stop-and-frisk-and-how-it-went-wrong

Wilson, J. Q., & Kelling, G. L. (1982). Broken windows. Atlantic monthly, 249 (3), 29-38.

Zimbardo, P. G. (1969). The human choice: Individuation, reason, and order versus deindividuation, impulse, and chaos. In Nebraska symposium on motivation. University of Nebraska press.

Further Information

• Wilson, J. Q., & Kelling, G. L. (1982). Broken windows. Atlantic monthly, 249(3), 29-38.
• Fagan, J., & Davies, G. (2000). Street stops and broken windows: Terry, race, and disorder in New York City. Fordham Urb. LJ, 28, 457.
• Fagan, J. A., Geller, A., Davies, G., & West, V. (2010). Street stops and broken windows revisited. In Race, ethnicity, and policing (pp. 309-348). New York University Press.

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Broken Windows Theory

How Environment Impacts Behavior

Verywell / Dennis Madamba

Origins and Explanation

• Application
• Impact on Behavior
• Positive Environments

The broken windows theory was proposed by James Q. Wilson and George Kelling in 1982, arguing that there was a connection between a person’s physical environment and their likelihood of committing a crime.

The theory has been a major influence on modern policing strategies and guided later research in urban sociology and behavioral psychology . But it’s also come under increasing scrutiny and some critics have argued that its application in policing and other contexts has done more harm than good.

The theory is named after an analogy used to explain it. If a window in a building is broken and remains unrepaired for too long, the rest of the windows in that building will eventually be broken, too. According to Wilson and Kelling, that’s because the unrepaired window acts as a signal to people in that neighborhood that they can break windows without fear of consequence because nobody cares enough to stop it or fix it. Eventually, Wilson and Kelling argued, more serious crimes like robbery and violence will flourish.

The idea is that physical signs of neglect and deterioration encourage criminal behavior because they act as a signal that this is a place where disorder is allowed to persist. If no one cares enough to pick up the litter on the sidewalk or repair and reuse abandoned buildings, maybe they won’t care enough to call the police when they see a drug deal or a burglary either.

How Is the Broken Windows Theory Applied?

The theory sparked a wave of “broken windows” or “zero tolerance” policing where law enforcement began cracking down on nonviolent behaviors like loitering, graffiti, or panhandling. By ramping up arrests and citations for perceived disorderly behavior and removing physical signs of disorder from the neighborhood, police hope to create a more orderly environment that discourages more serious crime.

The broken windows theory has been used outside of policing, as well, including in the workplace and in schools. Using a similar zero tolerance approach that disciplines students or employees for minor violations is thought to create more orderly environments that foster learning and productivity .

“By discouraging small acts of misconduct, such as tardiness, minor rule violations, or unprofessional conduct, employers seek to promote a culture of accountability, professionalism, and high performance,” said David Tzall Psy.D., a licensed forensic psychologist and Deputy Director for the Health and Wellness Unit of the NYPD.

Criticism of the Broken Window Theory

While the idea that one broken window leads to many sounds plausible, later research on the topic failed to find a connection. “The theory oversimplifies the causes of crime by focusing primarily on visible signs of disorder,” Tzall said. “It neglects underlying social and economic factors, such as poverty, unemployment, and lack of education, which are known to be important contributors to criminal behavior.”

When researchers account for those underlying factors, the connection between disordered environments and crime rates disappears.

In a report published in 2016, the NYPD itself found that its “quality-of-life” policing—another term for broken windows policing—had no impact on the city’s crime rate. Between 2010 and 2015, the number of “quality-of-life” summons issued by the NYPD for things like open containers, public urination, and riding bicycles on the sidewalk dropped by about 33%.

While the broken windows theory would theorize that serious crimes would spike when the police stopped cracking down on those minor offenses, violent crimes and property crimes actually decreased during that same time period.

“Policing based on broken windows theory has never been shown to work,” said Kimberly Vered Shashoua, LCSW , a therapist who works with marginalized teens and young adults. “Criminalizing unhoused people, low socioeconomic status households, and others who create this type of ‘crime’ doesn't get to the root of the problem,”

Not only have policing efforts that focus on things like graffiti or panhandling failed to have any impact on violent crime, they have often been used to target marginalized communities. “The theory's implementation can lead to biased policing practices as law enforcement officers can concentrate their efforts on low-income neighborhoods or communities predominantly populated by minority groups,” Tzall said.

That biased policing happens, in part, because there’s no objective measure of disordered environments so there’s a lot of room for implicit bias and discrimination to influence decision-making about which neighborhoods to target in crackdowns.

Studies show that neighborhoods where residents are predominantly Black or Latino are perceived as more disorderly and prone to crime than neighborhoods where residents are mostly white, even when police-recorded crime rates and physical signs of physical deterioration in the environment were the same.

Moreover, many of the behaviors that are used by police and researchers as signs of disorder are influenced by racial and class bias . Drinking and hanging out are both legal activities that are viewed as orderly when they happen in private spaces like a home or bar, for example. But those who socialize and drink in parks or on stoops outside their building are viewed as disorderly and charged with loitering and public drunkenness.

The Impact of Physical Environment on Behavior

While the broken windows theory and its application are flawed, the underlying idea that our physical environment can influence our behavior does hold some water. On one hand, “the physical environment conveys social norms that influence our behavior,” Tzall explained. “When we observe others adhering to certain norms in a particular space, we tend to adjust our own behavior to align with them.”

If a person sees litter on the street, they might be more likely to litter themselves, for example. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll make the leap from littering to robbery or violent assault. Moreover, litter can often be a sign that there aren’t enough public trashcans available on the streets for people to throw away food wrappers and other waste while they’re out. In that scenario, installing more trashcans would do far more to reduce litter than increasing the number of citations for littering.

“The design and layout of spaces can also signal specific expectations and guide our actions,” Tzall explained. In the litter example, then, the addition of more trashcans could also act as an environmental cue to encourage throwing trash away rather than littering.

How to Create Positive Environments to Foster Safety, Health, and Well-Being

Ultimately, reducing crime requires addressing the root causes of poverty and social inequality that lead to crime. But taking care of public spaces and neighborhoods to keep them clean and enjoyable can still have a positive impact on the communities who live in and use them.

“Positive environments provide opportunities for meaningful interactions and collaboration among community members,” Tzall said. “Access to green spaces, recreational facilities, mental health resources, and community services contribute to physical, mental, and emotional health,” said Tzall.

By creating more positive environments, we can encourage healthier lifestyle choices—like adding protected bike lanes to encourage people to ride bikes—and prosocial behavior —like adding basketball courts in parks to encourage people to meet and play a game with their neighbors.

At the individual level, Tzall suggests people “can initiate or participate in community projects, volunteer for local organizations, support inclusive initiatives, engage in dialogue with neighbors, and collaborate with local authorities or community leaders.” Create positive environments by taking the initiative to pick up litter when you see it, participate in tree planting initiatives, collaborate with your neighbors to establish a community garden, or volunteer with a local organization to advocate for better public spaces and resources. 

Wilson JQ and Kelling GL. Broken Windows: The Police and Neighborhood Safety . The Atlantic Monthly. 1982.

Harcourt B, Ludwig J. Broken windows: new evidence from new york city and a five-city social experiment . University of Chicago Law Review. 2006;73(1).

Peters M, Eure P. An Analysis of Quality-of-Life Summonses, Quality-of-Life Misdemeanor Arrests, and Felony Crime in New York City, 2010-2015 . New York City Department of Investigation Office of the Inspector General for the NYPD; 2016.

Sampson RJ. Disparity and diversity in the contemporary city: social (Dis)order revisited . The British Journal of Sociology. 2009;60(1):1-31. Doi:10.1111/j.1468-4446.2009.01211.x

By Rachael Green Rachael is a New York-based writer and freelance writer for Verywell Mind, where she leverages her decades of personal experience with and research on mental illness—particularly ADHD and depression—to help readers better understand how their mind works and how to manage their mental health.

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broken windows theory , academic theory proposed by James Q. Wilson and George Kelling in 1982 that used broken windows as a metaphor for disorder within neighbourhoods. Their theory links disorder and incivility within a community to subsequent occurrences of serious crime .

Broken windows theory had an enormous impact on police policy throughout the 1990s and remained influential into the 21st century. Perhaps the most notable application of the theory was in New York City under the direction of Police Commissioner William Bratton. He and others were convinced that the aggressive order-maintenance practices of the New York City Police Department were responsible for the dramatic decrease in crime rates within the city during the 1990s. Bratton began translating the theory into practice as the chief of New York City’s transit police from 1990 to 1992. Squads of plainclothes officers were assigned to catch turnstile jumpers, and, as arrests for misdemeanours increased, subway crimes of all kinds decreased dramatically. In 1994, when he became New York City police commissioner, Bratton introduced his broken windows-based “quality of life initiative .” This initiative cracked down on panhandling, disorderly behaviour, public drinking , street prostitution , and unsolicited windshield washing or other such attempts to obtain cash from drivers stopped in traffic. When Bratton resigned in 1996, felonies were down almost 40 percent in New York , and the homicide rate had been halved.

Prior to the development and implementation of various incivility theories such as broken windows, law enforcement scholars and police tended to focus on serious crime; that is, the major concern was with crimes that were perceived to be the most serious and consequential for the victim, such as rape , robbery , and murder . Wilson and Kelling took a different view. They saw serious crime as the final result of a lengthier chain of events, theorizing that crime emanated from disorder and that if disorder were eliminated, then serious crimes would not occur.

Their theory further posits that the prevalence of disorder creates fear in the minds of citizens who are convinced that the area is unsafe. This withdrawal from the community weakens social controls that previously kept criminals in check. Once this process begins, it feeds itself. Disorder causes crime, and crime causes further disorder and crime.

Scholars generally define two different types of disorder. The first is physical disorder, typified by vacant buildings, broken windows, abandoned vehicles, and vacant lots filled with trash. The second type is social disorder, which is typified by aggressive panhandlers, noisy neighbours, and groups of youths congregating on street corners. The line between crime and disorder is often blurred, with some experts considering such acts as prostitution and drug dealing as disorder while many others classify them as crimes. While different, these two types of disorder are both thought to increase fear among citizens.

The obvious advantage of this theory over many of its criminological predecessors is that it enables initiatives within the realm of criminal justice policy to effect change, rather than relying on social policy. Earlier social disorganization theories and economic theories offered solutions that were costly and would take a long time to prove effective. Broken windows theory is seen by many as a way to effect change quickly and with minimal expense by merely altering the police crime-control strategy. It is far simpler to attack disorder than it is to attack such ominous social ills as poverty and inadequate education.

Although popular in both academic and law-enforcement circles, broken windows theory is not without its critics. One line of criticism is that there is little empirical evidence that disorder, when left unchallenged, causes crime. To validate the theory in its entirety, it must be shown that disorder causes fear, that fear causes a breakdown of social controls (sometimes referred to as community cohesion), and that this breakdown of social controls in turn causes crime. Finally, crime must be shown to increase levels of disorder.

The strongest empirical support for the broken windows theory came from the work of political scientist Wesley Skogan, who found that certain types of social and physical disorder were related to certain kinds of serious crime. However, Skogan prudently recommended caution in the interpretation of his results as proof of the validity of the broken windows theory. Even this qualified support has been questioned by some researchers. In a reanalysis of Skogan’s data, political theorist Bernard Harcourt found that the link between neighbourhood disorder and purse snatching, assault, rape, and burglary vanished when poverty, neighbourhood stability, and race were statistically controlled. Only the link between disorder and robbery remained. Harcourt also criticized the broken windows theory for fostering “zero-tolerance” policies that are prejudicial against the disadvantaged segments of society.

In his attempt to link serious crime with disorder, criminal justice scholar Ralph Taylor found that no distinct pattern of relationships between crime and disorder emerged. Rather, some specific disorderly acts were linked to some specific crimes. He concluded that attention to disorder in general might be an error and that, while loosely connected, specific acts may not reflect a general state of disorder. He suggested that specific problems would require specific solutions. This seemed to provide more support for problem-oriented policing strategies than it did for the broken windows theory.

In short, the validity of the broken windows theory is not known. It is safe to conclude that the theory does not explain everything and that, even if the theory is valid, companion theories are necessary to fully explain crime. Alternatively, a more complex model is needed to consider many more cogent factors. Almost every study of the topic has, however, validated the link between disorder and fear. There is also strong support for the belief that fear increases a person’s desire to abandon disorderly communities and move to environments that are more hospitable. This option is available to the middle class, who can afford to move, but not to the poor, who have fewer choices. If the middle class moves out and the poor stay, the neighbourhood will inevitably become economically disadvantaged. This suggests that the next wave of theorization about neighbourhood dynamics and crime may take an economic bent.

Broken Windows Theory

Reviewed by Psychology Today Staff

The broken windows theory states that visible signs of disorder and misbehavior in an environment encourage further disorder and misbehavior, leading to serious crimes. The principle was developed to explain the decay of neighborhoods, but it is often applied to work and educational environments.

• What Is the Broken Windows Theory?
• Do Broken Windows Policies Work?

The broken windows theory, defined in 1982 by social scientists James Wilson and George Kelling, drawing on earlier research by Stanford University psychologist Philip Zimbardo, argues that no matter how rich or poor a neighborhood, one broken window would soon lead to many more windows being broken: “One unrepaired broken window is a signal that no one cares, and so breaking more windows costs nothing.” Disorder increases levels of fear among citizens, which leads them to withdraw from the community and decrease participation in informal social control.

The broken windows are a metaphor for any visible sign of disorder in an environment that goes untended. This may include small crimes, acts of vandalism, drunken or disorderly conduct, etc. Being forced to confront minor problems can heavily influence how people feel about their environment, particularly their sense of safety.  

With the help of small civic organizations, lower-income Chicago residents have created over 800 community gardens and urban farms out of burnt buildings and vacant lots. Now, instead of having trouble finding fresh produce, these neighborhoods have become go-to food destinations. This example of the broken windows theory benefits the people by lowering temperatures in overheated cities, increasing socialization, reducing stress , and teaching children about nature.

George L. Kelling and James Q. Wilson popularized the broken windows theory in an article published in the March 1982 issue of The Atlantic . They asserted that vandalism and smaller crimes would normalize larger crimes (although this hypothesis has not been fully supported by subsequent research). They also remarked on how signs of disorder (e.g., a broken window) stirred up feelings of fear in residents and harmed the safety of the neighborhood as a whole.

The broken windows theory was put forth at a time when crime rates were soaring, and it often spurred politicians to advocate policies for increasing policing of petty crimes—fare evasion, public drinking, or graffiti—as a way to prevent, and decrease, major crimes including violence. The theory was notably implemented and popularized by New York City mayor Rudolf Giuliani and his police commissioner, William Bratton. In research reported in 2000, Kelling claimed that broken-windows policing had prevented over 60,000 violent crimes between 1989 and 1998 in New York City, though critics of the theory disagreed.

Although the “Broken Windows” article is one of the most cited in the history of criminology , Kelling contends that it has often been misapplied. The implementation soon escalated to “zero tolerance” policing policies, especially in minority communities. It also led to controversial practices such as “stop and frisk” and an increase in police misconduct complaints.

Most important, research indicates that criminal activity was declining on its own, for a number of demographic and socio-economic reasons, and so credit for the shift could not be firmly attributed to broken-windows policing policies. Experts point out that there is “no support for a simple first-order disorder-crime relationship,” contends Columbia law professor Bernard E. Harcourt. The causes of misbehavior are varied and complex.

The effectiveness of this approach depends on how it is implemented. In 2016, Dr. Charles Branas led an initiative to repair abandoned properties and transform vacant lots into community parks in high-crime neighborhoods in Philadelphia, which subsequently saw a 39% reduction in gun violence. By building “palaces for the people” with these safe and sustainable solutions, neighborhoods can be lifted up, and crime can be reduced.  

When a neighborhood, even a poor one, is well-tended and welcoming, its residents have a greater sense of safety. Building and maintaining social infrastructure—such as public libraries, parks and other green spaces, and active retail corridors—can be a more sustainable option and improve the daily lives of the people who live there.

According to the broken windows theory, disorder (symbolized by a broken window) leads to fear and the potential for increased and more severe crime. Unfortunately, this concept has been misapplied, leading to aggressive and zero-tolerance policing. These policing strategies tend to focus on an increased police presence in troubled communities (especially those with minorities and lower-income residents) and stricter punishments for minor infractions (e.g., marijuana use).  

Zero-tolerance policing metes out predetermined consequences regardless of the severity or context of a crime. Zero-tolerance policies can be harmful in an academic setting, as vulnerable youth (particularly those from minority ethnic/racial backgrounds) find themselves trapped in the School-to-Prison Pipeline for committing minor infractions. 

Aggressive policing practices can sour relationships between police and the community. However, problem-oriented policing—which identifies the specific problems or “broken windows” in a neighborhood and then comes up with proactive responses—can help reduce crime. This evidence-based policing strategy  has been shown to be effective. 

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Broken Windows

The police and neighborhood safety

Editor’s Note: We’ve gathered dozens of the most important pieces from our archives on race and racism in America. Find the collection here .

In the mid-1970s The State of New Jersey announced a "Safe and Clean Neighborhoods Program," designed to improve the quality of community life in twenty-eight cities. As part of that program, the state provided money to help cities take police officers out of their patrol cars and assign them to walking beats. The governor and other state officials were enthusiastic about using foot patrol as a way of cutting crime, but many police chiefs were skeptical. Foot patrol, in their eyes, had been pretty much discredited. It reduced the mobility of the police, who thus had difficulty responding to citizen calls for service, and it weakened headquarters control over patrol officers.

Many police officers also disliked foot patrol, but for different reasons: it was hard work, it kept them outside on cold, rainy nights, and it reduced their chances for making a "good pinch." In some departments, assigning officers to foot patrol had been used as a form of punishment. And academic experts on policing doubted that foot patrol would have any impact on crime rates; it was, in the opinion of most, little more than a sop to public opinion. But since the state was paying for it, the local authorities were willing to go along.

Five years after the program started, the Police Foundation, in Washington, D.C., published an evaluation of the foot-patrol project. Based on its analysis of a carefully controlled experiment carried out chiefly in Newark, the foundation concluded, to the surprise of hardly anyone, that foot patrol had not reduced crime rates. But residents of the foot patrolled neighborhoods seemed to feel more secure than persons in other areas, tended to believe that crime had been reduced, and seemed to take fewer steps to protect themselves from crime (staying at home with the doors locked, for example). Moreover, citizens in the foot-patrol areas had a more favorable opinion of the police than did those living elsewhere. And officers walking beats had higher morale, greater job satisfaction, and a more favorable attitude toward citizens in their neighborhoods than did officers assigned to patrol cars.

These findings may be taken as evidence that the skeptics were right- foot patrol has no effect on crime; it merely fools the citizens into thinking that they are safer. But in our view, and in the view of the authors of the Police Foundation study (of whom Kelling was one), the citizens of Newark were not fooled at all. They knew what the foot-patrol officers were doing, they knew it was different from what motorized officers do, and they knew that having officers walk beats did in fact make their neighborhoods safer.

But how can a neighborhood be "safer" when the crime rate has not gone down—in fact, may have gone up? Finding the answer requires first that we understand what most often frightens people in public places. Many citizens, of course, are primarily frightened by crime, especially crime involving a sudden, violent attack by a stranger. This risk is very real, in Newark as in many large cities. But we tend to overlook another source of fear—the fear of being bothered by disorderly people. Not violent people, nor, necessarily, criminals, but disreputable or obstreperous or unpredictable people: panhandlers, drunks, addicts, rowdy teenagers, prostitutes, loiterers, the mentally disturbed.

What foot-patrol officers did was to elevate, to the extent they could, the level of public order in these neighborhoods. Though the neighborhoods were predominantly black and the foot patrolmen were mostly white, this "order-maintenance" function of the police was performed to the general satisfaction of both parties.

One of us (Kelling) spent many hours walking with Newark foot-patrol officers to see how they defined "order" and what they did to maintain it. One beat was typical: a busy but dilapidated area in the heart of Newark, with many abandoned buildings, marginal shops (several of which prominently displayed knives and straight-edged razors in their windows), one large department store, and, most important, a train station and several major bus stops. Though the area was run-down, its streets were filled with people, because it was a major transportation center. The good order of this area was important not only to those who lived and worked there but also to many others, who had to move through it on their way home, to supermarkets, or to factories.

The people on the street were primarily black; the officer who walked the street was white. The people were made up of "regulars" and "strangers." Regulars included both "decent folk" and some drunks and derelicts who were always there but who "knew their place." Strangers were, well, strangers, and viewed suspiciously, sometimes apprehensively. The officer—call him Kelly—knew who the regulars were, and they knew him. As he saw his job, he was to keep an eye on strangers, and make certain that the disreputable regulars observed some informal but widely understood rules. Drunks and addicts could sit on the stoops, but could not lie down. People could drink on side streets, but not at the main intersection. Bottles had to be in paper bags. Talking to, bothering, or begging from people waiting at the bus stop was strictly forbidden. If a dispute erupted between a businessman and a customer, the businessman was assumed to be right, especially if the customer was a stranger. If a stranger loitered, Kelly would ask him if he had any means of support and what his business was; if he gave unsatisfactory answers, he was sent on his way. Persons who broke the informal rules, especially those who bothered people waiting at bus stops, were arrested for vagrancy. Noisy teenagers were told to keep quiet.

These rules were defined and enforced in collaboration with the "regulars" on the street. Another neighborhood might have different rules, but these, everybody understood, were the rules for this neighborhood. If someone violated them, the regulars not only turned to Kelly for help but also ridiculed the violator. Sometimes what Kelly did could be described as "enforcing the law," but just as often it involved taking informal or extralegal steps to help protect what the neighborhood had decided was the appropriate level of public order. Some of the things he did probably would not withstand a legal challenge.

A determined skeptic might acknowledge that a skilled foot-patrol officer can maintain order but still insist that this sort of "order" has little to do with the real sources of community fear—that is, with violent crime. To a degree, that is true. But two things must be borne in mind. First, outside observers should not assume that they know how much of the anxiety now endemic in many big-city neighborhoods stems from a fear of "real" crime and how much from a sense that the street is disorderly, a source of distasteful, worrisome encounters. The people of Newark, to judge from their behavior and their remarks to interviewers, apparently assign a high value to public order, and feel relieved and reassured when the police help them maintain that order.

Second, at the community level, disorder and crime are usually inextricably linked, in a kind of developmental sequence. Social psychologists and police officers tend to agree that if a window in a building is broken and is left unrepaired, all the rest of the windows will soon be broken. This is as true in nice neighborhoods as in rundown ones. Window-breaking does not necessarily occur on a large scale because some areas are inhabited by determined window-breakers whereas others are populated by window-lovers; rather, one unrepaired broken window is a signal that no one cares, and so breaking more windows costs nothing. (It has always been fun.)

Philip Zimbardo, a Stanford psychologist, reported in 1969 on some experiments testing the broken-window theory. He arranged to have an automobile without license plates parked with its hood up on a street in the Bronx and a comparable automobile on a street in Palo Alto, California. The car in the Bronx was attacked by "vandals" within ten minutes of its "abandonment." The first to arrive were a family—father, mother, and young son—who removed the radiator and battery. Within twenty-four hours, virtually everything of value had been removed. Then random destruction began—windows were smashed, parts torn off, upholstery ripped. Children began to use the car as a playground. Most of the adult "vandals" were well-dressed, apparently clean-cut whites. The car in Palo Alto sat untouched for more than a week. Then Zimbardo smashed part of it with a sledgehammer. Soon, passersby were joining in. Within a few hours, the car had been turned upside down and utterly destroyed. Again, the "vandals" appeared to be primarily respectable whites.

Untended property becomes fair game for people out for fun or plunder and even for people who ordinarily would not dream of doing such things and who probably consider themselves law-abiding. Because of the nature of community life in the Bronx—its anonymity, the frequency with which cars are abandoned and things are stolen or broken, the past experience of "no one caring"—vandalism begins much more quickly than it does in staid Palo Alto, where people have come to believe that private possessions are cared for, and that mischievous behavior is costly. But vandalism can occur anywhere once communal barriers—the sense of mutual regard and the obligations of civility—are lowered by actions that seem to signal that "no one cares."

We suggest that "untended" behavior also leads to the breakdown of community controls. A stable neighborhood of families who care for their homes, mind each other's children, and confidently frown on unwanted intruders can change, in a few years or even a few months, to an inhospitable and frightening jungle. A piece of property is abandoned, weeds grow up, a window is smashed. Adults stop scolding rowdy children; the children, emboldened, become more rowdy. Families move out, unattached adults move in. Teenagers gather in front of the corner store. The merchant asks them to move; they refuse. Fights occur. Litter accumulates. People start drinking in front of the grocery; in time, an inebriate slumps to the sidewalk and is allowed to sleep it off. Pedestrians are approached by panhandlers.

At this point it is not inevitable that serious crime will flourish or violent attacks on strangers will occur. But many residents will think that crime, especially violent crime, is on the rise, and they will modify their behavior accordingly. They will use the streets less often, and when on the streets will stay apart from their fellows, moving with averted eyes, silent lips, and hurried steps. "Don't get involved." For some residents, this growing atomization will matter little, because the neighborhood is not their "home" but "the place where they live." Their interests are elsewhere; they are cosmopolitans. But it will matter greatly to other people, whose lives derive meaning and satisfaction from local attachments rather than worldly involvement; for them, the neighborhood will cease to exist except for a few reliable friends whom they arrange to meet.

Such an area is vulnerable to criminal invasion. Though it is not inevitable, it is more likely that here, rather than in places where people are confident they can regulate public behavior by informal controls, drugs will change hands, prostitutes will solicit, and cars will be stripped. That the drunks will be robbed by boys who do it as a lark, and the prostitutes' customers will be robbed by men who do it purposefully and perhaps violently. That muggings will occur.

Among those who often find it difficult to move away from this are the elderly. Surveys of citizens suggest that the elderly are much less likely to be the victims of crime than younger persons, and some have inferred from this that the well-known fear of crime voiced by the elderly is an exaggeration: perhaps we ought not to design special programs to protect older persons; perhaps we should even try to talk them out of their mistaken fears. This argument misses the point. The prospect of a confrontation with an obstreperous teenager or a drunken panhandler can be as fear-inducing for defenseless persons as the prospect of meeting an actual robber; indeed, to a defenseless person, the two kinds of confrontation are often indistinguishable. Moreover, the lower rate at which the elderly are victimized is a measure of the steps they have already taken—chiefly, staying behind locked doors—to minimize the risks they face. Young men are more frequently attacked than older women, not because they are easier or more lucrative targets but because they are on the streets more.

Nor is the connection between disorderliness and fear made only by the elderly. Susan Estrich, of the Harvard Law School, has recently gathered together a number of surveys on the sources of public fear. One, done in Portland, Oregon, indicated that three fourths of the adults interviewed cross to the other side of a street when they see a gang of teenagers; another survey, in Baltimore, discovered that nearly half would cross the street to avoid even a single strange youth. When an interviewer asked people in a housing project where the most dangerous spot was, they mentioned a place where young persons gathered to drink and play music, despite the fact that not a single crime had occurred there. In Boston public housing projects, the greatest fear was expressed by persons living in the buildings where disorderliness and incivility, not crime, were the greatest. Knowing this helps one understand the significance of such otherwise harmless displays as subway graffiti. As Nathan Glazer has written, the proliferation of graffiti, even when not obscene, confronts the subway rider with the inescapable knowledge that the environment he must endure for an hour or more a day is uncontrolled and uncontrollable, and that anyone can invade it to do whatever damage and mischief the mind suggests."

In response to fear people avoid one another, weakening controls. Sometimes they call the police. Patrol cars arrive, an occasional arrest occurs but crime continues and disorder is not abated. Citizens complain to the police chief, but he explains that his department is low on personnel and that the courts do not punish petty or first-time offenders. To the residents, the police who arrive in squad cars are either ineffective or uncaring: to the police, the residents are animals who deserve each other. The citizens may soon stop calling the police, because "they can't do anything."

The process we call urban decay has occurred for centuries in every city. But what is happening today is different in at least two important respects. First, in the period before, say, World War II, city dwellers- because of money costs, transportation difficulties, familial and church connections—could rarely move away from neighborhood problems. When movement did occur, it tended to be along public-transit routes. Now mobility has become exceptionally easy for all but the poorest or those who are blocked by racial prejudice. Earlier crime waves had a kind of built-in self-correcting mechanism: the determination of a neighborhood or community to reassert control over its turf. Areas in Chicago, New York, and Boston would experience crime and gang wars, and then normalcy would return, as the families for whom no alternative residences were possible reclaimed their authority over the streets.

Second, the police in this earlier period assisted in that reassertion of authority by acting, sometimes violently, on behalf of the community. Young toughs were roughed up, people were arrested "on suspicion" or for vagrancy, and prostitutes and petty thieves were routed. "Rights" were something enjoyed by decent folk, and perhaps also by the serious professional criminal, who avoided violence and could afford a lawyer.

This pattern of policing was not an aberration or the result of occasional excess. From the earliest days of the nation, the police function was seen primarily as that of a night watchman: to maintain order against the chief threats to order—fire, wild animals, and disreputable behavior. Solving crimes was viewed not as a police responsibility but as a private one. In the March, 1969, Atlantic, one of us (Wilson) wrote a brief account of how the police role had slowly changed from maintaining order to fighting crimes. The change began with the creation of private detectives (often ex-criminals), who worked on a contingency-fee basis for individuals who had suffered losses. In time, the detectives were absorbed in municipal agencies and paid a regular salary simultaneously, the responsibility for prosecuting thieves was shifted from the aggrieved private citizen to the professional prosecutor. This process was not complete in most places until the twentieth century.

In the l960s, when urban riots were a major problem, social scientists began to explore carefully the order maintenance function of the police, and to suggest ways of improving it—not to make streets safer (its original function) but to reduce the incidence of mass violence. Order maintenance became, to a degree, coterminous with "community relations." But, as the crime wave that began in the early l960s continued without abatement throughout the decade and into the 1970s, attention shifted to the role of the police as crime-fighters. Studies of police behavior ceased, by and large, to be accounts of the order-maintenance function and became, instead, efforts to propose and test ways whereby the police could solve more crimes, make more arrests, and gather better evidence. If these things could be done, social scientists assumed, citizens would be less fearful.

A great deal was accomplished during this transition, as both police chiefs and outside experts emphasized the crime-fighting function in their plans, in the allocation of resources, and in deployment of personnel. The police may well have become better crime-fighters as a result. And doubtless they remained aware of their responsibility for order. But the link between order-maintenance and crime-prevention, so obvious to earlier generations, was forgotten.

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That link is similar to the process whereby one broken window becomes many. The citizen who fears the ill-smelling drunk, the rowdy teenager, or the importuning beggar is not merely expressing his distaste for unseemly behavior; he is also giving voice to a bit of folk wisdom that happens to be a correct generalization—namely, that serious street crime flourishes in areas in which disorderly behavior goes unchecked. The unchecked panhandler is, in effect, the first broken window. Muggers and robbers, whether opportunistic or professional, believe they reduce their chances of being caught or even identified if they operate on streets where potential victims are already intimidated by prevailing conditions. If the neighborhood cannot keep a bothersome panhandler from annoying passersby, the thief may reason, it is even less likely to call the police to identify a potential mugger or to interfere if the mugging actually takes place.

Some police administrators concede that this process occurs, but argue that motorized-patrol officers can deal with it as effectively as foot patrol officers. We are not so sure. In theory, an officer in a squad car can observe as much as an officer on foot; in theory, the former can talk to as many people as the latter. But the reality of police-citizen encounters is powerfully altered by the automobile. An officer on foot cannot separate himself from the street people; if he is approached, only his uniform and his personality can help him manage whatever is about to happen. And he can never be certain what that will be—a request for directions, a plea for help, an angry denunciation, a teasing remark, a confused babble, a threatening gesture.

In a car, an officer is more likely to deal with street people by rolling down the window and looking at them. The door and the window exclude the approaching citizen; they are a barrier. Some officers take advantage of this barrier, perhaps unconsciously, by acting differently if in the car than they would on foot. We have seen this countless times. The police car pulls up to a corner where teenagers are gathered. The window is rolled down. The officer stares at the youths. They stare back. The officer says to one, "C'mere." He saunters over, conveying to his friends by his elaborately casual style the idea that he is not intimidated by authority. What's your name?" "Chuck." "Chuck who?" "Chuck Jones." "What'ya doing, Chuck?" "Nothin'." "Got a P.O. [parole officer]?" "Nah." "Sure?" "Yeah." "Stay out of trouble, Chuckie." Meanwhile, the other boys laugh and exchange comments among themselves, probably at the officer's expense. The officer stares harder. He cannot be certain what is being said, nor can he join in and, by displaying his own skill at street banter, prove that he cannot be "put down." In the process, the officer has learned almost nothing, and the boys have decided the officer is an alien force who can safely be disregarded, even mocked.

Our experience is that most citizens like to talk to a police officer. Such exchanges give them a sense of importance, provide them with the basis for gossip, and allow them to explain to the authorities what is worrying them (whereby they gain a modest but significant sense of having "done something" about the problem). You approach a person on foot more easily, and talk to him more readily, than you do a person in a car. Moreover, you can more easily retain some anonymity if you draw an officer aside for a private chat. Suppose you want to pass on a tip about who is stealing handbags, or who offered to sell you a stolen TV. In the inner city, the culprit, in all likelihood, lives nearby. To walk up to a marked patrol car and lean in the window is to convey a visible signal that you are a "fink."

The essence of the police role in maintaining order is to reinforce the informal control mechanisms of the community itself. The police cannot, without committing extraordinary resources, provide a substitute for that informal control. On the other hand, to reinforce those natural forces the police must accommodate them. And therein lies the problem.

Should police activity on the street be shaped, in important ways, by the standards of the neighborhood rather than by the rules of the state? Over the past two decades, the shift of police from order-maintenance to law enforcement has brought them increasingly under the influence of legal restrictions, provoked by media complaints and enforced by court decisions and departmental orders. As a consequence, the order maintenance functions of the police are now governed by rules developed to control police relations with suspected criminals. This is, we think, an entirely new development. For centuries, the role of the police as watchmen was judged primarily not in terms of its compliance with appropriate procedures but rather in terms of its attaining a desired objective. The objective was order, an inherently ambiguous term but a condition that people in a given community recognized when they saw it. The means were the same as those the community itself would employ, if its members were sufficiently determined, courageous, and authoritative. Detecting and apprehending criminals, by contrast, was a means to an end, not an end in itself; a judicial determination of guilt or innocence was the hoped-for result of the law-enforcement mode. From the first, the police were expected to follow rules defining that process, though states differed in how stringent the rules should be. The criminal-apprehension process was always understood to involve individual rights, the violation of which was unacceptable because it meant that the violating officer would be acting as a judge and jury—and that was not his job. Guilt or innocence was to be determined by universal standards under special procedures.

Ordinarily, no judge or jury ever sees the persons caught up in a dispute over the appropriate level of neighborhood order. That is true not only because most cases are handled informally on the street but also because no universal standards are available to settle arguments over disorder, and thus a judge may not be any wiser or more effective than a police officer. Until quite recently in many states, and even today in some places, the police made arrests on such charges as "suspicious person" or "vagrancy" or "public drunkenness"—charges with scarcely any legal meaning. These charges exist not because society wants judges to punish vagrants or drunks but because it wants an officer to have the legal tools to remove undesirable persons from a neighborhood when informal efforts to preserve order in the streets have failed.

Once we begin to think of all aspects of police work as involving the application of universal rules under special procedures, we inevitably ask what constitutes an "undesirable person" and why we should "criminalize" vagrancy or drunkenness. A strong and commendable desire to see that people are treated fairly makes us worry about allowing the police to rout persons who are undesirable by some vague or parochial standard. A growing and not-so-commendable utilitarianism leads us to doubt that any behavior that does not "hurt" another person should be made illegal. And thus many of us who watch over the police are reluctant to allow them to perform, in the only way they can, a function that every neighborhood desperately wants them to perform.

This wish to "decriminalize" disreputable behavior that "harms no one"- and thus remove the ultimate sanction the police can employ to maintain neighborhood order—is, we think, a mistake. Arresting a single drunk or a single vagrant who has harmed no identifiable person seems unjust, and in a sense it is. But failing to do anything about a score of drunks or a hundred vagrants may destroy an entire community. A particular rule that seems to make sense in the individual case makes no sense when it is made a universal rule and applied to all cases. It makes no sense because it fails to take into account the connection between one broken window left untended and a thousand broken windows. Of course, agencies other than the police could attend to the problems posed by drunks or the mentally ill, but in most communities especially where the "deinstitutionalization" movement has been strong—they do not.

The concern about equity is more serious. We might agree that certain behavior makes one person more undesirable than another but how do we ensure that age or skin color or national origin or harmless mannerisms will not also become the basis for distinguishing the undesirable from the desirable? How do we ensure, in short, that the police do not become the agents of neighborhood bigotry?

We can offer no wholly satisfactory answer to this important question. We are not confident that there is a satisfactory answer except to hope that by their selection, training, and supervision, the police will be inculcated with a clear sense of the outer limit of their discretionary authority. That limit, roughly, is this—the police exist to help regulate behavior, not to maintain the racial or ethnic purity of a neighborhood.

Consider the case of the Robert Taylor Homes in Chicago, one of the largest public-housing projects in the country. It is home for nearly 20,000 people, all black, and extends over ninety-two acres along South State Street. It was named after a distinguished black who had been, during the 1940s, chairman of the Chicago Housing Authority. Not long after it opened, in 1962, relations between project residents and the police deteriorated badly. The citizens felt that the police were insensitive or brutal; the police, in turn, complained of unprovoked attacks on them. Some Chicago officers tell of times when they were afraid to enter the Homes. Crime rates soared.

Today, the atmosphere has changed. Police-citizen relations have improved—apparently, both sides learned something from the earlier experience. Recently, a boy stole a purse and ran off. Several young persons who saw the theft voluntarily passed along to the police information on the identity and residence of the thief, and they did this publicly, with friends and neighbors looking on. But problems persist, chief among them the presence of youth gangs that terrorize residents and recruit members in the project. The people expect the police to "do something" about this, and the police are determined to do just that.

But do what? Though the police can obviously make arrests whenever a gang member breaks the law, a gang can form, recruit, and congregate without breaking the law. And only a tiny fraction of gang-related crimes can be solved by an arrest; thus, if an arrest is the only recourse for the police, the residents' fears will go unassuaged. The police will soon feel helpless, and the residents will again believe that the police "do nothing." What the police in fact do is to chase known gang members out of the project. In the words of one officer, "We kick ass." Project residents both know and approve of this. The tacit police-citizen alliance in the project is reinforced by the police view that the cops and the gangs are the two rival sources of power in the area, and that the gangs are not going to win.

None of this is easily reconciled with any conception of due process or fair treatment. Since both residents and gang members are black, race is not a factor. But it could be. Suppose a white project confronted a black gang, or vice versa. We would be apprehensive about the police taking sides. But the substantive problem remains the same: how can the police strengthen the informal social-control mechanisms of natural communities in order to minimize fear in public places? Law enforcement, per se, is no answer: a gang can weaken or destroy a community by standing about in a menacing fashion and speaking rudely to passersby without breaking the law.

We have difficulty thinking about such matters, not simply because the ethical and legal issues are so complex but because we have become accustomed to thinking of the law in essentially individualistic terms. The law defines my rights, punishes his behavior and is applied by that officer because of this harm. We assume, in thinking this way, that what is good for the individual will be good for the community and what doesn't matter when it happens to one person won't matter if it happens to many. Ordinarily, those are plausible assumptions. But in cases where behavior that is tolerable to one person is intolerable to many others, the reactions of the others—fear, withdrawal, flight—may ultimately make matters worse for everyone, including the individual who first professed his indifference.

It may be their greater sensitivity to communal as opposed to individual needs that helps explain why the residents of small communities are more satisfied with their police than are the residents of similar neighborhoods in big cities. Elinor Ostrom and her co-workers at Indiana University compared the perception of police services in two poor, all-black Illinois towns—Phoenix and East Chicago Heights with those of three comparable all-black neighborhoods in Chicago. The level of criminal victimization and the quality of police-community relations appeared to be about the same in the towns and the Chicago neighborhoods. But the citizens living in their own villages were much more likely than those living in the Chicago neighborhoods to say that they do not stay at home for fear of crime, to agree that the local police have "the right to take any action necessary" to deal with problems, and to agree that the police "look out for the needs of the average citizen." It is possible that the residents and the police of the small towns saw themselves as engaged in a collaborative effort to maintain a certain standard of communal life, whereas those of the big city felt themselves to be simply requesting and supplying particular services on an individual basis.

If this is true, how should a wise police chief deploy his meager forces? The first answer is that nobody knows for certain, and the most prudent course of action would be to try further variations on the Newark experiment, to see more precisely what works in what kinds of neighborhoods. The second answer is also a hedge—many aspects of order maintenance in neighborhoods can probably best be handled in ways that involve the police minimally if at all. A busy bustling shopping center and a quiet, well-tended suburb may need almost no visible police presence. In both cases, the ratio of respectable to disreputable people is ordinarily so high as to make informal social control effective.

Even in areas that are in jeopardy from disorderly elements, citizen action without substantial police involvement may be sufficient. Meetings between teenagers who like to hang out on a particular corner and adults who want to use that corner might well lead to an amicable agreement on a set of rules about how many people can be allowed to congregate, where, and when.

Where no understanding is possible—or if possible, not observed—citizen patrols may be a sufficient response. There are two traditions of communal involvement in maintaining order: One, that of the "community watchmen," is as old as the first settlement of the New World. Until well into the nineteenth century, volunteer watchmen, not policemen, patrolled their communities to keep order. They did so, by and large, without taking the law into their own hands—without, that is, punishing persons or using force. Their presence deterred disorder or alerted the community to disorder that could not be deterred. There are hundreds of such efforts today in communities all across the nation. Perhaps the best known is that of the Guardian Angels, a group of unarmed young persons in distinctive berets and T-shirts, who first came to public attention when they began patrolling the New York City subways but who claim now to have chapters in more than thirty American cities. Unfortunately, we have little information about the effect of these groups on crime. It is possible, however, that whatever their effect on crime, citizens find their presence reassuring, and that they thus contribute to maintaining a sense of order and civility.

The second tradition is that of the "vigilante." Rarely a feature of the settled communities of the East, it was primarily to be found in those frontier towns that grew up in advance of the reach of government. More than 350 vigilante groups are known to have existed; their distinctive feature was that their members did take the law into their own hands, by acting as judge, jury, and often executioner as well as policeman. Today, the vigilante movement is conspicuous by its rarity, despite the great fear expressed by citizens that the older cities are becoming "urban frontiers." But some community-watchmen groups have skirted the line, and others may cross it in the future. An ambiguous case, reported in The Wall Street Journal involved a citizens' patrol in the Silver Lake area of Belleville, New Jersey. A leader told the reporter, "We look for outsiders." If a few teenagers from outside the neighborhood enter it, "we ask them their business," he said. "If they say they're going down the street to see Mrs. Jones, fine, we let them pass. But then we follow them down the block to make sure they're really going to see Mrs. Jones."

Though citizens can do a great deal, the police are plainly the key to order maintenance. For one thing, many communities, such as the Robert Taylor Homes, cannot do the job by themselves. For another, no citizen in a neighborhood, even an organized one, is likely to feel the sense of responsibility that wearing a badge confers. Psychologists have done many studies on why people fail to go to the aid of persons being attacked or seeking help, and they have learned that the cause is not "apathy" or "selfishness" but the absence of some plausible grounds for feeling that one must personally accept responsibility. Ironically, avoiding responsibility is easier when a lot of people are standing about. On streets and in public places, where order is so important, many people are likely to be "around," a fact that reduces the chance of any one person acting as the agent of the community. The police officer's uniform singles him out as a person who must accept responsibility if asked. In addition, officers, more easily than their fellow citizens, can be expected to distinguish between what is necessary to protect the safety of the street and what merely protects its ethnic purity.

But the police forces of America are losing, not gaining, members. Some cities have suffered substantial cuts in the number of officers available for duty. These cuts are not likely to be reversed in the near future. Therefore, each department must assign its existing officers with great care. Some neighborhoods are so demoralized and crime-ridden as to make foot patrol useless; the best the police can do with limited resources is respond to the enormous number of calls for service. Other neighborhoods are so stable and serene as to make foot patrol unnecessary. The key is to identify neighborhoods at the tipping point—where the public order is deteriorating but not unreclaimable, where the streets are used frequently but by apprehensive people, where a window is likely to be broken at any time, and must quickly be fixed if all are not to be shattered.

Most police departments do not have ways of systematically identifying such areas and assigning officers to them. Officers are assigned on the basis of crime rates (meaning that marginally threatened areas are often stripped so that police can investigate crimes in areas where the situation is hopeless) or on the basis of calls for service (despite the fact that most citizens do not call the police when they are merely frightened or annoyed). To allocate patrol wisely, the department must look at the neighborhoods and decide, from first-hand evidence, where an additional officer will make the greatest difference in promoting a sense of safety.

One way to stretch limited police resources is being tried in some public housing projects. Tenant organizations hire off-duty police officers for patrol work in their buildings. The costs are not high (at least not per resident), the officer likes the additional income, and the residents feel safer. Such arrangements are probably more successful than hiring private watchmen, and the Newark experiment helps us understand why. A private security guard may deter crime or misconduct by his presence, and he may go to the aid of persons needing help, but he may well not intervene—that is, control or drive away—someone challenging community standards. Being a sworn officer—a "real cop"—seems to give one the confidence, the sense of duty, and the aura of authority necessary to perform this difficult task.

Patrol officers might be encouraged to go to and from duty stations on public transportation and, while on the bus or subway car, enforce rules about smoking, drinking, disorderly conduct, and the like. The enforcement need involve nothing more than ejecting the offender (the offense, after all, is not one with which a booking officer or a judge wishes to be bothered). Perhaps the random but relentless maintenance of standards on buses would lead to conditions on buses that approximate the level of civility we now take for granted on airplanes.

But the most important requirement is to think that to maintain order in precarious situations is a vital job. The police know this is one of their functions, and they also believe, correctly, that it cannot be done to the exclusion of criminal investigation and responding to calls. We may have encouraged them to suppose, however, on the basis of our oft-repeated concerns about serious, violent crime, that they will be judged exclusively on their capacity as crime-fighters. To the extent that this is the case, police administrators will continue to concentrate police personnel in the highest-crime areas (though not necessarily in the areas most vulnerable to criminal invasion), emphasize their training in the law and criminal apprehension (and not their training in managing street life), and join too quickly in campaigns to decriminalize "harmless" behavior (though public drunkenness, street prostitution, and pornographic displays can destroy a community more quickly than any team of professional burglars).

Above all, we must return to our long-abandoned view that the police ought to protect communities as well as individuals. Our crime statistics and victimization surveys measure individual losses, but they do not measure communal losses. Just as physicians now recognize the importance of fostering health rather than simply treating illness, so the police—and the rest of us—ought to recognize the importance of maintaining, intact, communities without broken windows.

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How A Theory Of Crime And Policing Was Born, And Went Terribly Wrong

Shankar Vedantam

Chris Benderev

Renee Klahr

Maggie Penman

Jennifer Schmidt

The broken windows theory of policing suggested that cleaning up the visible signs of disorder — like graffiti, loitering, panhandling and prostitution — would prevent more serious crime as well. Getty Images/Image Source hide caption

The broken windows theory of policing suggested that cleaning up the visible signs of disorder — like graffiti, loitering, panhandling and prostitution — would prevent more serious crime as well.

In 1969, Philip Zimbardo, a psychologist from Stanford University, ran an interesting field study. He abandoned two cars in two very different places: one in a mostly poor, crime-ridden section of New York City, and the other in a fairly affluent neighborhood of Palo Alto, Calif. Both cars were left without license plates and parked with their hoods up.

After just 10 minutes, passersby in New York City began vandalizing the car. First they stripped it for parts. Then the random destruction began. Windows were smashed. The car was destroyed. But in Palo Alto, the other car remained untouched for more than a week.

Finally, Zimbardo did something unusual: He took a sledgehammer and gave the California car a smash. After that, passersby quickly ripped it apart, just as they'd done in New York.

This field study was a simple demonstration of how something that is clearly neglected can quickly become a target for vandals. But it eventually morphed into something far more than that. It became the basis for one of the most influential theories of crime and policing in America: "broken windows."

Thirteen years after the Zimbardo study, criminologists George L. Kelling and James Q. Wilson wrote an article for The Atlantic . They were fascinated by what had happened to Zimbardo's abandoned cars and thought the findings could be applied on a larger scale, to entire communities.

"The idea [is] that once disorder begins, it doesn't matter what the neighborhood is, things can begin to get out of control," Kelling tells Hidden Brain.

In the article, Kelling and Wilson suggested that a broken window or other visible signs of disorder or decay — think loitering, graffiti, prostitution or drug use — can send the signal that a neighborhood is uncared for. So, they thought, if police departments addressed those problems, maybe the bigger crimes wouldn't happen.

"Once you begin to deal with the small problems in neighborhoods, you begin to empower those neighborhoods," says Kelling. "People claim their public spaces, and the store owners extend their concerns to what happened on the streets. Communities get strengthened once order is restored or maintained, and it is that dynamic that helps to prevent crime."

Kelling and Wilson proposed that police departments change their focus. Instead of channeling most resources into solving major crimes, they should instead try to clean up the streets and maintain order — such as keeping people from smoking pot in public and cracking down on subway fare beaters.

The argument came at an opportune time, says Columbia University law professor Bernard Harcourt.

"This was a period of high crime, and high incarceration, and it seemed there was no way out of that dynamic. It seemed as if there was no way out of just filling prisons to address the crime problem."

An Idea Moves From The Ivory Tower To The Streets

As policymakers were scrambling for answers, a new mayor in New York City came to power offering a solution.

Rudy Giuliani won election in 1993, promising to reduce crime and clean up the streets. Very quickly, he adopted broken windows as his mantra.

It was one of those rare ideas that appealed to both sides of the aisle.

Conservatives liked the policy because it meant restoring order. Liberals liked it, Harcourt says, because it seemed like an enlightened way to prevent crime: "It seemed like a magical solution. It allowed everybody to find a way in their own mind to get rid of the panhandler, the guy sleeping on the street, the prostitute, the drugs, the litter, and it allowed liberals to do that while still feeling self-righteous and good about themselves."

Giuliani and his new police commissioner, William Bratton, focused first on cleaning up the subway system, where 250,000 people a day weren't paying their fare. They sent hundreds of police officers into the subways to crack down on turnstile jumpers and vandals.

Very quickly, they found confirmation for their theory. Going after petty crime led the police to violent criminals, says Kelling: "Not all fare beaters were criminals, but a lot of criminals were fare beaters. It turns out serious criminals are pretty busy. They commit minor offenses as well as major offenses."

The policy was quickly scaled up from the subway to the entire city of New York.

Police ramped up misdemeanor arrests for things like smoking marijuana in public, spraying graffiti and selling loose cigarettes. And almost instantly, they were able to trumpet their success. Crime was falling. The murder rate plummeted. It seemed like a miracle.

The media loved the story, and Giuliani cruised to re-election in 1997.

George Kelling and a colleague did follow-up research on broken windows policing and found what they believed was clear evidence of its success. In neighborhoods where there was a sharp increase in misdemeanor arrests — suggesting broken windows policing was in force — there was also a sharp decline in crime.

By 2001, broken windows had become one of Giuliani's greatest accomplishments. In his farewell address, he emphasized the beautiful and simple idea behind the success.

"The broken windows theory replaced the idea that we were too busy to pay attention to street-level prostitution, too busy to pay attention to panhandling, too busy to pay attention to graffiti," he said. "Well, you can't be too busy to pay attention to those things, because those are the things that underlie the problems of crime that you have in your society."

Questions Begin To Emerge About Broken Windows

Right from the start, there were signs something was wrong with the beautiful narrative.

"Crime was starting to go down in New York prior to the Giuliani election and prior to the implementation of broken windows policing," says Harcourt, the Columbia law professor. "And of course what we witnessed from that period, basically from about 1991, was that the crime in the country starts going down, and it's a remarkable drop in violent crime in this country. Now, what's so remarkable about it is how widespread it was."

Harcourt points out that crime dropped not only in New York, but in many other cities where nothing like broken windows policing was in place. In fact, crime even fell in parts of the country where police departments were mired in corruption scandals and largely viewed as dysfunctional, such as Los Angeles.

"Los Angeles is really interesting because Los Angeles was wracked with terrible policing problems during the whole time, and crime drops as much in Los Angeles as it does in New York," says Harcourt.

There were lots of theories to explain the nationwide decline in crime. Some said it was the growing economy or the end of the crack cocaine epidemic. Some criminologists credited harsher sentencing guidelines.

In 2006, Harcourt found the evidence supporting the broken windows theory might be flawed. He reviewed the study Kelling had conducted in 2001, and found the areas that saw the largest number of misdemeanor arrests also had the biggest drops in violent crime.

Harcourt says the earlier study failed to consider what's called a "reversion to the mean."

"It's something that a lot of investment bankers and investors know about because it's well-known and in the stock market," says Harcourt. "Basically, the idea is if something goes up a lot, it tends to go down a lot."

A graph in Kelling's 2001 paper is revealing. It shows the crime rate falling dramatically in the early 1990s. But this small view gives us a selective picture. Right before this decline came a spike in crime. And if you go further back, you see a series of spikes and declines. And each time, the bigger a spike, the bigger the decline that follows, as crime reverts to the mean.

Kelling acknowledges that broken windows may not have had a dramatic effect on crime. But he thinks it still has value.

"Even if broken windows did not have a substantial impact on crime, order is an end in itself in a cosmopolitan, diverse world," he says. "Strangers have to feel comfortable moving through communities for those communities to thrive. Order is an end in itself, and it doesn't need the justification of serious crime."

Order might be an end in itself, but it's worth noting that this was not the premise on which the broken windows theory was sold. It was advertised as an innovative way to control violent crime, not just a way to get panhandlers and prostitutes off the streets.

'Broken Windows' Morphs Into 'Stop And Frisk'

Harcourt says there was another big problem with broken windows.

"We immediately saw a sharp increase in complaints of police misconduct. Starting in 1993, what you're going to see is a tremendous amount of disorder that erupts as a result of broken windows policing, with complaints skyrocketing, with settlements of police misconduct cases skyrocketing, and of course with incidents, brutal incidents, all of a sudden happening at a faster and faster clip."

The problem intensified with a new practice that grew out of broken windows. It was called "stop and frisk," and was embraced in New York City after Mayor Michael Bloomberg won election in 2001.

If broken windows meant arresting people for misdemeanors in hopes of preventing more serious crimes, "stop and frisk" said, why even wait for the misdemeanor? Why not go ahead and stop, question and search anyone who looked suspicious?

There were high-profile cases where misdemeanor arrests or stopping and questioning did lead to information that helped solve much more serious crimes, even homicides. But there were many more cases where police stops turned up nothing. In 2008, police made nearly 250,000 stops in New York for what they called furtive movements. Only one-fifteenth of 1 percent of those turned up a gun.

Even more problematic, in order to be able to go after disorder, you have to be able to define it. Is it a trash bag covering a broken window? Teenagers on a street corner playing music too loudly?

In Chicago, the researchers Robert Sampson and Stephen Raudenbush analyzed what makes people perceive social disorder . They found that if two neighborhoods had exactly the same amount of graffiti and litter and loitering, people saw more disorder, more broken windows, in neighborhoods with more African-Americans.

George Kelling is not an advocate of stop and frisk. In fact, all the way back in 1982, he foresaw the possibility that giving police wide discretion could lead to abuse. In his article, he and James Q. Wilson write: "How do we ensure ... that the police do not become the agents of neighborhood bigotry? We can offer no wholly satisfactory answer to this important question."

In August of 2013, a federal district court found that New York City's stop and frisk policy was unconstitutional because of the way it singled out young black and Hispanic men. Later that year, New York elected its first liberal mayor in 20 years. Bill DeBlasio celebrated the end of stop and frisk. But he did not do away with broken windows. In fact, he re-appointed Rudy Giuliani's police commissioner, Bill Bratton.

And just seven months after taking over again as the head of the New York Police Department, Bratton's broken windows policy came under fresh scrutiny. The reason: the death of Eric Garner.

In July 2014, a bystander caught on cellphone video the deadly clash between New York City police officers and Garner, an African-American. After a verbal confrontation, officers tackled Garner, while restraining him with a chokehold, a practice that is banned in New York City.

Garner died not long after he was brought down to the ground. His death sparked massive protests, and his name is now synonymous with the distrust between police and African-American communities.

For George Kelling, this was not the end that he had hoped for. As a researcher, he's one of the few whose ideas have left the academy and spread like wildfire.

But once politicians and the media fell in love with his idea, they took it to places that he never intended and could not control.

"When, during the 1990s, I would occasionally read in a newspaper something like a new chief comes in and says, 'I'm going to implement broken windows tomorrow,' I would listen to that with dismay because [it's] a highly discretionary activity by police that needs extensive training, formal guidelines, constant monitoring and oversight. So do I worry about the implementation about broken windows? A whole lot ... because it can be done very badly."

In fact, Kelling says, it might be time to move away from the idea.

"It's to the point now where I wonder if we should back away from the metaphor of broken windows. We didn't know how powerful it was going to be. It simplified, it was easy to communicate, a lot of people got it as a result of the metaphor. It was attractive for a long time. But as you know, metaphors can wear out and become stale."

These days, the consensus among social scientists is that broken windows likely did have modest effects on crime. But few believe it caused the 60 or 70 percent decline in violent crime for which it was once credited.

And yet despite all the evidence, the idea continues to be popular.

Bernard Harcourt says there is a reason for that:

"It's a simple story that people can latch onto and that is a lot more pleasant to live with than the complexities of life. The fact is that crime dropped in America dramatically from the 1990s, and that there aren't really good, clean nationwide explanations for it."

The story of broken windows is a story of our fascination with easy fixes and seductive theories. Once an idea like that takes hold, it's nearly impossible to get the genie back in the bottle.

The Hidden Brain Podcast is hosted by Shankar Vedantam and produced by Maggie Penman, Jennifer Schmidt and Renee Klahr. Our supervising producer is Tara Boyle. You can also follow us on Twitter @hiddenbrain , and listen for Hidden Brain stories each week on your local public radio station.

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Crime Policies: Broken Windows Theory Essay

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Introduction

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Broken windows theory refers to a hypothesis related to criminology. The theory identifies, and explains certain observations on how to manage crime and explicit behavior in urban environments. According to the theory, proper maintenance and monitoring of urban areas plays a crucial role in providing security to people.

James Wilson and George Kelling introduced the broken windows theory in 1982. The social scientists discussed the theory through an article published in the United States. Since then, the theory has attracted a wide range of unfavorable judgment from various people. Police department of the United States has been among the main beneficiaries of this theory. Various state governments apply the theory in developing their policies on crime. A crucial element about this theory is the concept of fear.

According to criminology experts, the broken windows theory develops upon this concept. This explains the reason why it is widely used police agencies. The police agencies classify public disorder as one of the major problems they deal on a daily basis. They argue that it acts as a source of fear among community members. Disorder in urban environments often elevates fear among people. This results in the development of a social prototype that reduces cohesion among community members.

In one of their publications, James Wilson and George Kelling argued that modern policing has shifted its focus from ensuring order to dealing with escalating levels of crime in urban environments. This phenomenon resulted from riots that begun developing in urban areas during the 1960s.

The riots disrupted social order and security among urban communities. This created an urgent need for police agencies to maintain the safety of streets by reducing mass violence. This is a clear indication that police agencies still apply this theory in their work.

Various communities in the United States have successfully applied the broken windows theory in ensuring order across various their urban environments. Massachusetts is one of the communities that have managed to apply this theory to improve security in their streets. The aim of the program was to reduce levels of crime in the community by improving their physical environment. They believed that arresting people would not bring the desired change, as long as the criminal hideouts remained operational.

Police agencies in the community collaborated with researchers from Harvard University and Suffolk University to identify, and clear out various criminal hideouts. The most identifiable challenges involved disposal of waste, faulty streetlights, and poor enforcement of building codes among others. The program also involved providing counseling services to victims of crime. Police officers had to change their operational routine in some areas to ensure the program was successful.

The broken windows theory would be very effective in Cincinnati, Ohio. One of the biggest challenges experienced by police agencies in this community involves dealing with traffic criminals. The streets of Cincinnati, Ohio have become very insecure because of a disorganized physical environment.

Poor infrastructure characterized by defective equipments such as streetlights has contributed a lot to the high rates of crime in this location. One of the key things to note when implementing this theory in such a location is that people will often resist change. Therefore, it is important to ensure that change programs apply in a manner that attracts public support. When introducing change, it is important to ensure that all people support the initiative.

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Broken Windows Theory of Policing

Info: 2183 words (9 pages) Essay Published: 13th Aug 2019

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Jurisdiction / Tag(s): US Law UK Law

1. Explain the Broken Windows theory of policing. Describe the advantages and disadvantages of this approach. Detail the two most important benefits and the two pitfalls of such an approach to policing.

Police departments, in the past twenty years, have adopted a theory that says by controlling minor disorders serious crimes can be reduced. It is called the broken windows theory, “also known as “order-maintenance,””zero-tolerance,” or “quality-of-life” policing.” (Harcourt & Ludwig, Winter 2006, p. 282) It came to the forefront after a 1982 Atlantic Monthly magazine article by James Q. Wilson and George Kelling. The article argued that when low-level quality-of-life offenses were tolerated in a community, more serious crime would follow. The broken windows theory says that “the variation in disorder in neighborhoods that explains the variation in crime, holding structural disadvantage constant. The real trigger is disorderliness itself.” (Harcourt & Ludwig, p. 281) According to this view, broken windows, abandoned buildings, public drinking, litter and loitering cause good people to stay in their houses or move out of the neighborhood entirely. The theory argues “that the minor events and incivilities that frightened people, far from being a distraction for police departments, should be identified as key targets of police action.” (Moore, 1992, p. 138) It leaves criminals free to roam and send a message that law violations are not taken seriously. “The focus of the broken windows policing strategy is to address community anxiety about public safety. Broken windows advocates argue that the role of the police is fundamentally to maintain public order.” (Dammert & Malone, Winter 2006, p. 39) Some of the advantages of the broken windows policing are that it reduces social and physical disorders, furthers joint safety endeavors, and bring communities together.

“Broken windows theory assumes an essentialist notion both of disorder and its connection to perception: visual cues are unambiguous and natural in meaning” (Sampson & Raudenbush, Dec. 2004, p. 320). The theory’s biggest test has been in New York City, where a dramatic decline in crime has been attributed in large part to “order maintenance.” Rundown parts of the city have been cleaned up, and police focus more on such problems as panhandling, turnstile jumping, and public drinking. Police have even cracked down on people who clean the windshields of cars at stoplights with squeegees (Parenti, 1999, p.77). Among the first and hardest hit were the homeless, who travel, beg, and live in the political and physical basement of the class system: the city’s six-story-deep concrete bowels. Advocates of such tactics argued that in order to address these crimes, the police must be afforded wide discretion and should not be hamstrung by constitutional rules. Still “broken windows” enforcement has won a proper place among trends in criminal-justice reform.

But in doing so, the police ignored the principal lesson of their own theory. If the toleration of minor law violations leads to more serious crime on the street, it would also follow that the toleration of minor law violations by the police will lead to more serious crime on the force. And that is precisely what has happened. “The broken windows theory suggests that minor disorders, both physical…and social…is causally related to serious crime.” (Harcourt, 2001, p.68) “Broken windows gives rise to “wars” on the poor, racism, and police brutality.” (Weisburd & Braga, 2007, p. 80) As mayor, Giuliani appeared to show his eagerness to impose law and order at all costs with the implementation of the zero tolerance policy. This led to a dramatic increase in arrests for such crimes as riding a bike on the sidewalk and playing loud music.

People who admit that crime is decreasing because of these policies are only being self-defeating because if they admit that crime is down because of these policies, then they can use the same policies on the cops to improve police conduct. Yes, broken windows does reduce crime, but if an uncivil society breeds criminals, certainly a belligerent police force breeds police brutality. “To what extent can police brutality be explained by “turning the police loose” with order maintenance tactics? Many civil libertarians and advocates for the homeless, for example, oppose order maintenance because they believe it infringes on the liberties of selected populations (the poor, minorities, the homeless, and youths) and opens the door to abusive police practices. The debates about these issues have been vigorous and often rancorous.” (Kelling, October 1999, p. 1)

“Surveillance cameras are everywhere. They are in housing projects, at traffic intersections, and on subway platforms, with plans constantly announced to add more. There are undercover quality-of-life police squads who ride the subways, busting people for fare skipping or even for placing their bags on the seat next to them. The police sweep down on the homes of “suspected drug dealers” and people they mistakenly think are dealing. A simple tip from a snitch can send cops to knock down the door and toss in a stun grenade.” (RW, October 18, 1998)

In conclusion, “police officials need to focus on the substantive content of police work; find and delineate the means to conduct police work morally, legally, skillfully, and effectively; then structure and administer departments on the basis of this literal work and not a fictionalized view of police work.” (Kelling, October 1999, p. 2)

2. Under what circumstance in society would the broken windows approach work best? Give at least two specific circumstances and detail how the approach will work from start to finish.

The broken windows approach to policing would work best in areas where there are a lot of untended behavior. It can be untended homes, untended yards, and even untended children. If left untended these can lead to a community that is out of control. A well kept home and community can quickly turn into a frightening place to live. “One’s perception of incivilities in the neighborhood has a greater impact than the actual amount of incivilities in the neighborhood” (Weisburd & Braga, 2007, p.83). Houses that are not cared for gives criminal miscreants the impression that the residents of the community do not care about the quality of life in their neighborhood. It signals to them that they are free to roam to neighborhood and steal, litter, and vandalize. The unkempt houses opens up the community for more disorders, such as public drunkenness and loitering, that if not dealt with will lead to more serious crimes. “Neighborhood disorders influences honest people to move out of the neighborhood or lock themselves in their homes, but it influences the disorderly and especially criminals to move into the neighborhood and commit crimes.” (Harcourt, Nov. 1998, p. 297) Teenagers begin to gather in front of the local convenience store. Litter starts to accumulates on the side of streets. People start to drink alcohol in front of the corner store; in time, a drunk in left to sleep it off on the sidewalk. Pedestrians are being approached by very persistent panhandlers. All of this gives citizens the feeling that their neighborhood is no longer safe. The feeling of insecurity forces them to stay inside of their homes, or move away, which leads to further deterioration of the neighborhood. These types of crimes deteriorate the citizens’ trust and confidence in police’s ability to provide its first obligation, which is safety to the public.

In order to deter this type of catastrophe police should implement some form of broken windows policing. First, you have to determine what is the core or main problem that should be resolved. The panhandler that was left to harass the residents as they walk to the street is, in effect, the first broken window. This act is the one that opened the proverbial door for criminals to enter into the community. If the community can’t keep a belligerent panhandler from harassing the citizens, a thief may believe, that the community is even less likely to notify officers of a mugging or step in while it is taking place.

By resolving the panhandling issue, the major issue, you can also start eliminating some of the smaller problems. Panhandlers are a serious problem because they prey on the sympathies of the residents. As more and more residents give the panhandlers money, more panhandlers move into the community seeking out these same opportunities. Eventually they are hanging out with signs at every freeway off-ramp, stop sign, and intersection light waiting for some naive motorist to give them money. “the appropriate and realistic goal is to find a means within an imperfect system for humane…treatment” (Hodulik, Summer 2001, p. 1075) of those that panhandle. The trick to getting rid of panhandlers is to stop giving them money. Police have to inform residents of the panhandling epidemic . To do this the police department should set up a community meeting. Residents should be informed that most panhandlers do not use the money that they are given for food and clothing. A lot of them use the money to purchase drugs and alcohol. Police should teach the residents how to ignore the panhandlers and how to avoid eye contact with them.

Also another way getting the churches, community leaders, and merchants together to establish a voucher distribution system as a way of making sure that the panhandlers are actually getting food and clothing. Vouchers would be sold to people in the community and they can give them to the panhandler instead of money. Panhandlers cash these vouchers in at some of the local merchants in exchange for food, no alcohol or tobacco, and clothing. This way the residents can still give knowing that the panhandler will not go purchase drugs or alcohol, but food and/or clothing. Knowing this will make the residents interact and give more to the panhandlers.

Another circumstance that can benefit from broken windows policing is the dilapidated and vacant homes in the community. “Ineffective neighbor networks might…be related to more physical-structural qualities of a community” (Wilcox et al., Spring 2004, p.186). These homes can quickly turn into a breeding ground for illegal drug activities, temporary shelter for the homeless, and hideouts for those running from the police. One thing that police officers can do is meet with the residents so that they can voice their opinion about the rundown homes in the community. At this time they can also seek any suggestions on how to correct the problem. The first thing for officers to do is search these homes for squatters and criminal. They should be check to see if they have any warrants. If no warrants they are released and asked to leave the house. Those with warrants will be arrested and taken to jail for processing. Next, is a community renovation project. By removing these desolate properties can restore the health and safety to the community. It can also increase the value of the other homes in the neighborhood. If the home has an owner they can pay to get the house torn down. If there is no owner or the owner can not pay for a demolition the community has to come together to get the houses demolished. One way the community can do this is by getting a demolition grant for neighborhood stabilization. This way the federal government pays for the demolition of the homes. Once the funds have been secured then the next thing is to get an affordable demolition company. The main objective is to get the most out of the grant money, more houses demolished at the cheapest possible cost. After they have a demolition company, the dilapidated homes should be demolished and the land cleared. To help with the beautification of the community the land should be reseeded after the structure has been cleared. Some of the land could be turned into a community garden. The rest could be sold so that more houses could be built on it.

The most important thing is that once the houses have been cleared the criminal miscreants will no longer have areas within the community where they can dwell and commit devious acts. Also it gives the residents back a a sense of pride in their community. No longer will they fear walking out of their front door because of the drug activity going on down the street. This one act can change the dynamics of the community from downtrodden and crime infested to viable. It lets the deviants know that the residents care for their community.

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Broken Windows Theory Analysis

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• American Quarterly
• The Broken Windows of the Bronx: Putting the Theory in Its Place
• Bench Ansfield
• Johns Hopkins University Press
• Volume 72, Number 1, March 2020
• pp. 103-127
• 10.1353/aq.2020.0005
• View Citation

Additional Information

• Bench Ansfield (bio)

Broken glass everywhere —Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, "The Message"

Published to great fanfare and controversy in a 1982 issue of the Atlantic Monthly , James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling's "Broken Windows: The Police and Neighborhood Safety" sent shockwaves through social scientific and law enforcement circles, rippling out to recast conversations on safety and crime across the United States and beyond. 1 Three decades later, the rise of the Movement for Black Lives and a renewed campaign against police violence has forced broken windows policing into this country's critical crosshairs, eliciting a host of grassroots and scholarly condemnations of the decades-old paradigm of policing. These urgent lines of inquiry have exposed how broken windows policing has worked to extend the reach of the criminal legal system deeper into the daily lives of communities of color, "locat[ing] disorder within individuals" and "off-loading liability onto the bodies of the blamed." 2 These critiques have demonstrated how, by criminalizing "small signs of 'disorder'" and projecting that disorder onto certain bodies, broken windows policing is both consistent with centuries-old patterns of policing and responsible for "vastly broaden[ing] the capacities of police both nationally and globally." 3 Yet these critiques tend to leave untouched the historical and intellectual contingencies that propelled the theory into police precincts across the nation. 4 In proceeding from the questions—How did the broken windows theory come to make sense? And in what spaces did it ground itself?—this essay attempts to push the critical conversation toward understanding and defanging the epistemological claims embedded in the writings of Wilson and Kelling. Wilson and Kelling's signal intervention revolved around their understanding of how signs of disorder, such as subway graffiti or public drunkenness, ostensibly push "law-abiding" residents toward vandalism and crime by reducing "community controls" against incivility. These signs of disorder further undermine community life by provoking "community fear" and suggesting [End Page 103] the possibility of more injurious crime. In short, fear of crime—aroused by relatively innocuous manifestations of disorder—becomes, in their writings, a primary cause of neighborhood deterioration. Accordingly, they argue that the function of police should be to cultivate a sense of safety, rather than fighting crime per se. And this perceived safety can only be achieved by eradicating the visual cues of disorder. 5

Enter the broken window: "Social scientists and police officers tend to agree that if a window in a building is broken and is left unrepaired, all the rest of the windows will soon be broken." 6 If Wilson and Kelling's article were to be condensed into one sentence, this could well be it, and they substantiate it by gesturing toward a supposed social scientific consensus around its validity. But in Wilson and Kelling's essay, only one empirical source shoulders the evidentiary burden of this assertion, of proving the connection between one broken window and "all the rest"—of proving, in other words, the connection between visual cues of disorder and neighborhood deterioration. 7 This source is an experiment conducted fifteen years earlier in the Bronx and Palo Alto by the social psychologist Philip G. Zimbardo, best known for administering the Stanford prison experiment two years later. 8 Wilson and Kelling recount Zimbardo's 1969 study in detail, and a close reading of the tensions between the Zimbardo experiment and Wilson and Kelling's essay casts new light on the genesis of the broken windows theory.

The present essay zeroes in on one chapter in the intellectual genealogy of the broken windows theory of policing, tracking the spaces and sources used by its authors. 9 I argue that Wilson and Kelling manipulated and distorted the findings of prior studies to call forth a racialized image of urban decline, one that marshaled broken windows to stoke fears about the future of the US urban landscape. The terrain on which these fears took shape was the 1970s Bronx, which Wilson and Kelling deployed as a possible fate for all US cities. In fashioning their title out of the broken windows of the Bronx, they drew on...

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Essay On Broken Windows Theory

James Wilson and George Kelling introduced the broken windows theory in 1982. The broken windows theory states that any minor crimes, if ignored will increase into higher and more serious crimes. This theory implies that if you control an area to be well be ordered and maintained, this could stop further acts and decrease the crime rates. Broken windows theory sparked an evolutionary change in policing and the community. The broken windows theory is a good-fighting crime strategy and suggested the way in thinking about the community. Citizens felt safer when police department conducted more foot patrol in the neighborhood and felt that police were more aware of the crime that occur. Broken windows-theory created a better environment for the community and promoted the community to stay in active programs that focused on prevention and criminal activity. In the high-crime neighborhood areas, the police worked with the community. If a window was broken then the owner of the window had to immediately replace it. If there was graffiti on the walls, they will have to repainted or scrubbed and then …show more content…

The theory is very pro-active and requires law enforcement officers to recognize, not ignore, offense and deal with it. Offenses such as graffiti, loitering, soliciting, parking violation, traffic driving, truancy, and abandoned property are minor offenses that grow into larger problems that can transform a good neighborhood into a chaotic neighborhood within the span of 10 years. However, there are a lot of disadvantages to the broken window theory. The first disadvantages to the broken windows theory is the zero-tolerance policy. Zero tolerance policing relies on the premise that the more arrests made by officers for minor crimes contributing to community disorder, the less severe crime that community will have to

Summary Of When A Heart Turns Rock Solid By Timothy Black

It was not easy for Julio to get to this point, but he eventually found his way by having a wife and daughter and without ever going to prison (x). The three criminological theories that relate to Julio and his journey is conflict theory, social conflict theory, and strain theory. Conflict theory is when the people in power create social and economic environments that facilitate crime in the areas where the people who have the least power live (Adler, Mueller, and Laufer 180). Conflict theory relates to Julio because “he had shot but not killed three men on Main Street and had left the gang before the federal investigation” (Black 112). The society where Julio lived was not good, everyone had to know how to survive on the streets in order to survive in life.

Mark Andrew Twitchell's Social Modelling Theory

Modelling theory also called the social learning theory can be defined as “behaviour which is learned in much the same way and such learning includes the acquisition of norms, values, and patterns of behaviour conceive to crime,

Summary Of Power Of Context Gladwell

Each term acts as a stepping stool to show how the environment one lives in is the key factor to increasing crime rates in cities. Even though the term “Power of Context” pops up so late in the essay, it is one of the most important terms. In hinds sight, Gladwell uses the idea of the “Broken Window Theory” from Wilson and Keeling and incorporates it into his own idea, which he named the Power of Context, and for the rest of the essay the term power of context popped up more while the Broken Window theory faded into the dark. Gladwell structures the text, so that power of context is introduced using the Broken Windows theory and every term after just supports his claim that environment is one of the main reasons why crime is so high. The Power of Context helped readers find a source to where some people find the urge to commit crimes, which is the environment they are surrounded by.

'Code Of The Street' By Elijah Anderson

The strain theory implies that crime may occur because of the stress or frustration placed on people when

The Problem With Broken Windows (2016)

Lighters in the hands of citizens burning cars and businesses, holding a sign, “Hands Up Don’t Shoot” through the war, police on the other side holding their stance like a fence moving together against the community, who they are supposed to protect and serve, turned against them. A war that is close to home about police actions that caused outrage throughout the country. In the article, The Problem with Broken Windows (2016), “James Stewart, president of Newark’s Fraternal Order of Police… [said] that the frequent stops and citations made people mistrust the police…” According to Childress (2016), A police officer placed an individual in a chokehold suffocating him to death, for selling cigarettes on the street.

Broken Crime Theory

The Broken Windows Theory is effective at preventing crime by cracking down on urban disorder. Broken Windows policing has reduced the number of shootings, murders and other violent crimes in New York City. Through the implementation of Broken Windows policing in New York City, businesses were able to grow because they no longer had to fear having their money or goods stolen by delinquents. Broken Windows policing in New York City encouraged the growth of tourism; by cleaning up the streets and removing criminals, outsiders felt safe visiting. This reinvigoration on New York City also helped cause the influx of new residents because people were able to take the subway and walk down the streets without fear of being mugged or assaulted.

Stop And Frisk Case Study

It is stated in Broken Windows Theory that if you deal with the small crimes then it will help deter the larger ones. Stop and frisk is supposed to help deter the smaller crimes, however, many believed that there was too much emphasis on Broken Windows and that 's what lead to the stop and frisk procedures getting out of hand. While the city has all but stopped doing stop and frisk, broken windows still remains. It is unclear if Bratton and de Brasio will budge on broken windows. For example, the city will no longer arrest people for publicly possessing under 25 grams of marijuana which is a common broken windows

Pros And Cons Of Broken Windows Theory

The broken-windows theory was enforced before zero-tolerance policy and the Mayor transitioned into a more strict policy for reducing crime. Broken windows policing was effective in reducing crime rates within the United States. The transition into zero-tolerance policy made the police look at small offenses more seriously because these small offenses and low-level crimes could lead to higher offenses. Zero-tolerance was implemented because the Mayor realized all criminal offenses needed to be taken

Pyrrhic Defeat Theory

Policies that are made to make people feel safer imprison more minorities and the saddest aspect is that it is considered a success by current politicians. The first feature of the Pyrrhic defeat theory states, “failure to implement policies that stand a good chance of reducing crime and the harm it causes” (Reiman and Leighton 179). Everybody in society wants lower crime, but the methods that are currently used to reduce crime are not deterring criminals, but are harsher imprisonment for lesser crimes. The first rule of the Pyrrhic theory emphasizes the failure of the criminal justice system because it takes the wrong approach of reducing the main cause of crime, poverty. Those in poverty are scapegoats for those with wealth who get little consequences for their own

Social Bond Theory Criminology Study

Criminology uses many theories to study crime, such as Social bond theory, Control theory social, containment theory etc. Social bond theory includes a various forms of social attachment theories. Attachment is a complicated process starting at birth with a maternal connection. This premature form of joint sets the standard for an individual's future attachments to friends, family members, co-workers and lovers. Control theory suggests a responsibility towards one's behavior.

Theories Of Criminology Theory

It is the means of understanding the human behaviour towards criminal activities and the ways through which it can be controlled. Moreover, the theory considers two factors that are situational factor and personal factor, which are the major reason behind formulation of the theory. Beccaria developed the theory to make it convenient for the people to understand the personal as well as situational factors through which crime rate is increasing. This is because it helps in minimising the rising impact of criminal

Problem-Assisted Policing And The SARA Model

Problem oriented policing is a combination of law enforcement and social work (Jackson, 2016). This combination approach helps police officers to identify problems, analyze then, and determine the underlying cause. Identifying and addressing the root cause of crime is the goal of problem-oriented policing (Roufa, 2017). The SARA model is used to help officers with this method of modern policing. Problem oriented policing and the SARA model are used to proactively prevent crime, vs simply reacting to it.

Social Learning Theory Vs Labeling Theory

Two theories that can be compared are the Social Learning Theory and the Labeling Theory. When comparing these two theories we can use the juvenile crime of stealing to see how the theories are similar and different. The social learning theory basically states that crime like other behaviors is learned. The other theory, labeling states that certain things or children aren’t necessary deviant until society labels them as so. These two theories also have positives and negatives pertaining to how effective they are in the causes of juvenile delinquent behavior.

Broken Windows Theory Essay

The broken windows theory was initiated from the idea of “order maintenance”. Order maintenance gave off the impression that the community was not the authority in control, but that it tolerated minuscule actions that encourage more serious and more violent crimes. The adoption of the broke windows theory made way for the zero tolerance policy, which simply states that no matter what the circumstances are, when it comes to crimes within the streets and discipline in the schools, punishment will be applied. The broken windows theory is used as a signaling effect of urban disorder and vandalism on anti-social behavior and any other additional crimes. The theory expresses that while maintaining and keeping a watch over urban environments to help

Criminal Justice Vs Criminology

They seek to gain answers to what really happens on the streets, police stations, behind prison bars and courtrooms, They collect much of their information by analyzing data sets and statistical studies mainly on topics relating to drug use and homicide rates. Not only does it attempt to explain crimes within a societal background and the variations between our society, but this brings me to the three distinct theories as stated in the book on page 67, that attempt to explain why criminals behave in a certain

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Essays on Broken Windows Theory

The Broken Windows Theory is a criminological theory that suggests that visible signs of disorder and neglect in a neighborhood can lead to an increase in crime. It was first introduced by social scientists James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling in 1982. Writing an essay on Broken Windows Theory is important because it helps to understand the impact of environmental factors on crime rates and the effectiveness of community policing strategies.

When writing an essay on Broken Windows Theory, it is important to start by providing a clear definition of the theory and its key concepts. This includes explaining the idea that maintaining order and addressing small signs of disorder can help prevent more serious crime from occurring. It is also important to provide examples and evidence of how the theory has been applied in various communities and the results that have been observed.

In addition, it is important to consider the criticisms and limitations of the Broken Windows Theory. Some argue that it oversimplifies the complex causes of crime and may lead to discriminatory policing practices. Addressing these criticisms in the essay shows a well-rounded understanding of the topic and demonstrates critical thinking skills.

When writing about the importance of Broken Windows Theory, it is also essential to discuss its implications for public policy and law enforcement. This includes exploring how the theory has influenced policing strategies and the development of community-oriented policing approaches.

When writing an essay on Broken Windows Theory, it is important to use academic sources and research to support your arguments. This includes citing scholarly articles, books, and other reputable sources to back up your claims. Additionally, it is important to use clear and concise language and to structure your essay in a logical and organized manner.

In conclusion, writing an essay on Broken Windows Theory is important for understanding the impact of environmental factors on crime rates and the effectiveness of community policing strategies. When writing about this topic, it is important to define the theory, provide examples and evidence, consider criticisms, and discuss its implications for public policy. Using academic sources and clear language will help to make your essay informative and persuasive.

What Makes a Good Broken Windows Theory Essay Topics

When it comes to writing an essay on the Broken Windows Theory, the topic you choose can make all the difference. A good essay topic should be thought-provoking, relevant, and engaging. To brainstorm and choose the best essay topic, consider the impact of the theory, its application in different contexts, and its implications for society. A good essay topic should also be specific and focused, allowing for in-depth analysis and discussion.

Best Broken Windows Theory Essay Topics

• The impact of the Broken Windows Theory on urban policing
• The role of social disorder in the development of crime
• Exploring the relationship between physical disorder and social disorder
• The effectiveness of the Broken Windows Theory in reducing crime rates
• Broken Windows Theory and its influence on community policing
• The application of the Broken Windows Theory in different cultural contexts
• The limitations of the Broken Windows Theory in addressing complex social issues
• Broken Windows Theory and the concept of "zero-tolerance" policing
• The role of public perception in the success of the Broken Windows Theory
• The ethical implications of implementing the Broken Windows Theory in law enforcement

Broken Windows Theory Essay Topics Prompts

• Imagine a world where the Broken Windows Theory was never introduced. How would urban spaces and policing strategies be different?
• Put yourself in the shoes of a community leader trying to implement the Broken Windows Theory in a neighborhood. What challenges would you face, and how would you address them?
• Create a fictional case study that demonstrates the principles of the Broken Windows Theory in action. How does the theory play out in a real-world scenario?
• Reflect on a personal experience where you witnessed the effects of social disorder in a public space. How did this experience shape your understanding of the Broken Windows Theory?
• If you could propose an alternative theory to address social disorder and crime, what would it be? How does it differ from the Broken Windows Theory, and what are its potential benefits and drawbacks?

Choosing the right Broken Windows Theory essay topic is crucial for creating a compelling and impactful piece of writing. By considering the impact, relevance, and specificity of the topic, you can develop an essay that offers unique insights and sparks meaningful discussions.

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Broken Window Theory Essays

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Broken Windows Essays (Examples)

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Broken Windows Is the Broken

(Braga, et. al, 1999). However, the problem is that the study did not directly examine the broken windows theory. While the police present in the study did engage in some of the social order restoration that is characteristic of broken windows policing, they also engaged in overt acts to reduce violent crime, such as removing weapons stashed by local drug dealers. (Braga, et. al, 1999). Obviously, reducing the likelihood that violent criminals will be able to access their weapons would probably reduce their ability to engage in violent crime. Therefore, while that study does not dispute the broken windows theory, it also does not support the broken windows theory. While it may seem that if it is possible that aggressive policing can have a positive impact on violent crime rates, then the policy should be continued, that position ignores that there are risks associated with broken-windows style policing. In both…...

mla Referenced Braga, a., Weisburd, D., Waring, E., Mazerolle, L., Spelman, W., & Gajewski, F. (1999). Problem-oriented policing in violent crime places: a randomized controlled experiment. Criminology, 37(3), 541-580. Garland, D. (2001). The culture of control: crime and social order in contemporary society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Broken Windows Perspective

Broken Windows Perspective The world is a scary place. Many of us live in urban areas, where crime rates are reaching all time highs. Yet, still our phobias over crime may tend to be exaggerated. Still, it is clear through the broken windows perspective that allowing the physical space of neighborhoods to decay also results in the increase of crimes in the area; therefore, helping initiate cleaner streets helps hinder crimes, but also helps calm public fears about crime as well. The roots of the broken windows go deep into our history with associating aesthetics to character. Essentially, the common thought is that neighborhoods that are well maintained are also proactive in helping law enforcement keep their areas free of crim. A modern example of this is seen in the case of New York, where there was a correlation made between physical image of neighborhoods and concepts about crime (Stevens 2009). Degraded…...

mla References Stevens, Dennis J. (2009). Chapter 3: Broken windows, fear, and community policing. An Introduction to American Policing. Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Wilson, James Q. & Kelling, George L. (2011). The police and neighborhood safety: Broken windows. Atlantic Monthly. Web.   http://www.manhattan-institute.org/pdf/_atlantic_monthly-broken_windows.pdf

Broken Windows Damaged Gutters and Police Supervision

Broken Windows, Damaged Gutters, and olice Supervision One of the primary obstacles that police reformers face when implementing a community policing philosophy is that it requires that officers, supervisors and communities work together in a 'team' oriented manner to accomplish the tasks at hand. As pointed out in the case study, Sergeant Strzykalski was at first very reluctant to participate in the community policing program in part because his work would be evaluated at a team level instead of independently. He was also asked to forgo the philosophy which he had maintained for years, which suggested that good policing is contingent upon quotas and numbers rather than interaction with community members. Many officers are used to working in an environment that encourages more independence and provides officers with the ability to work very independently rather than collaboratively. In addition few are required to Thus the initial shift in philosophy would be…...

mla Police supervisors can address the fears of patrol officers by helping them realize the positives rather than the negatives of a community policing approach. One of the positives pointed out in the case study was that police officers are more likely to be considered 'experts' in the field and supervisors are more likely to solicit their opinions and advice on community policing matters. This will increase their sense of contribution and worth and also help officers realize how much opportunity they have to contribute to the department. Criminal Justice Organizations Stojkovic, S., Kalinich, D., Klofas, J. (2003). "Broken Windows, Damaged Gutters, and Police Supervision" Wadsworth / Thomson

Criminology the Essence of Broken Windows Theory

Criminology The essence of broken windows theory is that "if a neighborhood or city doesn't fix its broken windows and graffiti, the environment will continue to descend into crime, chaos and violence," (Thompson, 2012). Environmental variables have an impact on crime rates, which is why it is important to pay attention to the foreclosure phenomenon and the phenomenal rate at which foreclosures are happening in certain neighborhoods. A vicious cycle can be created, whereby the neighborhoods with high rates of foreclosures have higher rates of crime; and those high crime neighborhoods become much less attractive to would-be investors and home buyers. The result is a perpetually depressed and crime-ridden neighborhood. Using broken windows theory, it is important to see why law enforcement and city officials need to pay close attention to which neighborhoods are at risk. eal estate investors should also be paying attention to the problem, ensuring that areas with…...

mla References Thompson, M. (2012). Broken-Windows theory. Time. 5 July 2012. Retrieved online:   http://nation.time.com/2012/07/05/broken-windows-theory/  Wilson, H.J., Cieplowski, K. & Lee, S. (n.d.). Spatial analysis of property crimes, foreclosure, and other socioeconomic variables.

Broken Window Policy

Broken Window Theory The "broken windows" theory of crime prevention and control is perhaps one of the most widely discussed and least understood law enforcement paradigms, due to the relative simplicity of the theory and the ostensibly dramatic reductions in crime offered by the first studies of cities in which a "broken windows" policy was implemented. The policy was first proposed in the early 1980s, but it was not until the 1990s, when New York adopted a broken windows policy and saw a drop in crime rates, that the theory became widely popularized. However, subsequent analysis of these drops in crime as well as other detrimental effects of a broken windows policy helps to reveal that the gains initially promised by the results in New York and other cities is not indicative of a broken windows policy in general, and in fact, many of these reductions in crime may be attributed…...

mla References Distler, M. (2011). Less debate, more analysis: a meta analysis of literature on broken windows policing. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. EDITORIAL: 'broken windows' and crime (2007). . United States, Washington: McClatchy Tribune Information Services. Edwards, S. (2009, May 20). Violent crime on rise in manhattan; fewer tickets issued. National Post, pp. A.24.

Windows -- Bernice Morgan One Would Think

Windows -- Bernice Morgan One would think that waiting for death in the bitter cold of late winter is about as grim as a life can be. But when you are depressed and dirt poor, living in a ramshackle old house that leaks cold air, with a daughter-in-law in the house that you dislike intensely -- and who wants you out of the house whenever possible -- things are seriously awful. For Leah, who has vivid memories of how life used to be in Estonia, her misery is compounded by her confused mind. Author Morgan does a splendid job of portraying Leah's misery -- and the reality of Leah's life beyond Leah's twisted approach to what life she has left -- through three main themes and symbols: colors, sounds, and death. Also incorporated into the short story is Leah's total lack of motivation, her cynical view of the people around her,…...

Public Order Maintanence Policing Theory of Broken

Public Order Maintanence Policing Theory Of Broken Windows The "Broken Window" theory has enthused police departments in the United States while extending community policing, since its conception in 1982 by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling. The "Broken Windows" theory suggests that neglecting smaller issues would attract bigger issues. The proponents of the theory consider that "at the community level, disorder and crime are usually inextricably linked, in a kind of developmental sequence" and that "one unrepaired broken window is a signal that no one cares and so breaking more windows costs nothing" [Wilson, Kelling, 1982] However, 'Broken Window' is "only a theory." [Miller, 2001] Controlling crime in a society cannot be as simple as fixing broken windows. The reason for crime in a society is not just about the way the community is maintained; it is a very complex issue with many dimensions. In fact, a criminal mind is at times…...

mla References Miller D.W. "Poking Holes in the Theory of 'Broken Windows." 2001, Available at Accessed on 8.10.2003 http://www.umsl.edu/~nestor/The%20Chronicle%20February%209,%202001%20Poking%20Holes%20in%20the%20Theory%20of%20.htm. Vigil, James Diego. A Rainbow of Gangs: Street Cultures in the Mega-City, University of Texas Press, United States, 2002 Wilson, James. Q. and. Kelling George. L. "Broken Windows The police and neighborhood safety," March 1982 Available at   Accessed 8.10.2003 http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/crime/windows.htm .

Broke My Father's Heart and

Rather, the reader is only exposed to the short, choppy explanations of a first person narrator. Very little explanation is given as to why the events are happening or who the characters really are underneath their outward expressions and appearances. This tends to add to the general confusion the narrator feels during the intensely scary situation. One moment the narrator was thinking about tailgating with friends, and the next he is on the floor after being hit by a bus. The level of description coincides with the overall tone of confusion. The events following the initial accident also tend to carry this sense of confusion, but the atmosphere is much faster paced. The hospital and the ensuing trouble the narrator faces is in a much more rapid and hectic atmosphere than the dull and dreary atmosphere seen in Butler's work. Overall, it is clear that the two works may share…...

mla Works Cited Butler, Katy. "What Broke My Father's Heart." New York Times. 2010. Web.   http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/20/magazine/20pacemaker-t.html?pagewanted=all  Riederer, Rachel. "Patient." The Missouri Review, 33(1), 2010. Pp 152-166.

Night the Crystals Broke Write Where You

Night the Crystals Broke Write where you got inspiration from? The inspiration from this poem comes from my grandmother and her family, who lived through the pogroms and just before the Nazis took over Hungary. The title refers to the Kristallnacht, the event in which the Nazis burned synagogues and their religious items, and broke the windows. They also broke the windows of the local businesses. This poem also refers to the journey that was scary and arduous, over the Atlantic in the ship to Ellis Island. The statue at the end of the poem is the Statue of Liberty, which welcomed the "poor" and "hungry" masses, like my grandmother's people. (2) Which author and poem did you refer to when writing this poem? There is no one author or poem I referred to here. This is a completely original work. However, it is written in the form of a ballad. The ballad…...

Movies Rear Window Stewart v

Even if it successfully brings back to life a story forgotten by the public and distinguishes itself from today's typical films, Disturbia is no match for Rear indow. It is not certain if Disturbia is homage or a remake to Rear indow, since the two movies are not exactly the same, but they are not very different either. hile some might consider Disturbia to be a rip-off to Rear indow (ilonsky 66), it is not the case here, since copying an idea as long as one does not copy its expression is not illegal. The reaction of the masses to Disturbia regarding the plagiarism involved in it is most probably owed to the film's success, since it is very probable for this condition to have been inexistent if the film were to make little to no money. Caruso was right in bringing back the story present in Rear indow, considering that…...

mla Works cited: 1. Fawell, John Hitchcock's Rear Window: The Well-Made Film (Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2001). 2. Verevis, Constantine Film Remakes (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006). 3. Wilonsky, Robert "Peeping Bomb," The Village Voice 11 Apr. 2007: 66. 4. Disturbia. Dir D.J. Caruso. With Shia Leboeuf and David Morse. DreamWorks, 2007.

Rear Window Creating Suspense in

Jeff becomes an investigator with his camera. He is the one in the shadows at first, not the murderer. The murderer is exposed, out in the open. However, the plot evolves in such a way that Jeff becomes from the follower, the one being followed. He becomes the one exposed, as he is the one trapped in his apartment, the murderer passes now into shadow. We hold our breath in expectation as Franz Waxman's score contributes to the tension sustaining the action and pin pointing to the most intense moments. The introspective, almost intimate, image of the film, the darkness of the movie theatre and the expressive score appeal to our senses and to our curious nature. It is not fear that the viewer feels, it is something more, like anxiousness, which is played upon so well by Hitchcock that you end up feeling disappointed together with the main characters…...

mla References Rear Window, Approaches to Film, Retrieved on the 20th of October, Available online at http://course1.winona.edu/pjohnson/h140/rear.htm Rear Window, IMDB, Retrieved on the 20th of October, Available online at   http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047396/  Dirks, Tim, Rear Window, Top 100 Greatest Films, Retrieved on the 20th of October, Available online at   http://www.filmsite.org/rear.html  Rear Window, Approaches to Film, Retrieved on the 20th of October, Available online at http://course1.winona.edu/pjohnson/h140/rear.htm

Stickball A Window Into America's

The article remarks with respect to asphalt that "a baseball will get ruined on a surface like this: it's too dense and hard for asphalt or brick, and the canvas-like surface of the ball will get chewed up. Not to mention other problems: in densely populated areas, there are a lot houses near school yards with glass windows, and we all know what happens when a baseball hits a glass window. To sum it up: while baseball is a romantically American game, and was without question our most popular pastime for about 50 years, you can't play it in the city." (Beccary, 1) Foregoing this blanket statement -- given the evolution of inner-city athletic youth programs in recent decades -- the point of Beccary's remarks remains useful. Namely, the unique game that was stickball would come to fruition in response to the desire to play baseball and the absence…...

mla Works Cited: Beccary, G. (2007). A Complete History of Stickball. Greg's Words of Wisdom. Online at   http://gregswords.wordpress.com/2007/04/07/a-complete-history-of-stickball/  Curry, J. (1989). Beyond Nostalgia: Reviving a Tough Game of Stickball. The New York Times. Online at   http://www.nytimes.com/1989/07/09/nyregion/beyond-nostalgia-reviving-a-tough-game-of-stickball.html  Devlin, B. (2009). Making a Phillies Fan: Always Imagining You Were a Phillie. The New York Times. Online at   http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/making-a-phillies-fan-always-imagining-you-were-a-phillie/  Greene, M. (2004). Stickball Hall of Fame. Streetplay. Online at   http://www.streetplay.com/stickball/halloffame/

Effect of Community Policing on Crime

Broken Windows" discussed the causes of fear and crime among urban neighborhoods. Beginning with a case of police walking the beat in crime-ridden neighborhoods, the authors evolved their article to an understanding of how the presence of a patrolman on the street can make residents feel safer. By studying the effect of patrolmen, the authors began to understand the cause of crime and the effect it can have on neighborhood residents. The authors asserted that crime, and more importantly the community's perception of it, began with general disorder and evolved eventually into complete fear of the neighborhood. While studying crime and disorder, researchers have made an interesting discovery, the "Broken Window" effect. As the authors described "if a window in a building is broken and is left unrepaired, all the rest of the windows will soon be broken." (Kelling, 1982) When applied to crime and disorder this theory states that…...

mla References Kelling, George, and James Wilson. (1982). "Broken Windows." The Atlantic. Retrieved from   http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/03/broken -windows/304465/

Discretion in Law Enforcement

ole of Discretion in Law Enforcement Human civilization has always been defined by the establishment of ethical codes, laws which individuals must obey for the greater good of society, and for every rule that mankind has devised there have been those willing to transgress. Criminal misconduct has remained a pervasive and prevalent issue across all cultures and historical eras, spanning the spectrum of age, gender and socioeconomic status, and the invariable commission of illicit acts demonstrates one of humanity's most enduring social dilemmas. Public officials, police forces and private citizens alike have routinely attempted to mitigate the consequences of crime through preventative measures, by anticipating offenses before they occur and incarcerating those who are most prone to engage in criminal activity. While the predictive power of personality profiles and prior behaviors is well documented, other attributes like religious affiliation, ethnic identification and racial background are increasingly being used to extrapolate expected…...

mla References Wilson, J.Q. & Kelling, G.L. (1982, March 12). Broken windows. The Atlantic, Retrieved from   windows/304465/?single_page=true http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/03/broken - Zimbardo, P.G. (1969). The human choice: Individuation, reason, and order vs. deindividuation, impulse, and chaos. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, (17), 237-307.

Community Oriented Policing

Community Oriented Policing new and comprehensive strategy against crime: Community Policing: For the purpose of reducing neighborhood crimes, creating a sense of security and reduce fear of crimes among the citizens and improving the quality of life in the community, the community policing strategy will be proved to be the most effective one. The accomplishment of all these objectives to develop a healthy and clean society can be done by combining the efforts of the police department, the members of the community and the local government. "The concept of community policing is not very new however it has gained attention in last few years. It is an approach to make a collaborative effort between the police and the community in order to identify and solve the problems of crime, societal disorder and disturbances. It combines all the element of the community to find out the solutions to the social problems. Its foundations…...

mla References Gordon: Community Policing: Towards the Local Police State?: Law, Order and the Authoritarian State, Open University Press, Milton Keynes, 1987, p. 141. O'Malley and D. Palmer: Post-Keynesian Policing, Economy and Society: 1996, p 115. Bright: Crime Prevention: The British Experience: The Politics of Crime Control: Sage, London, 1991. p. 24-63. MacDonald: Skills and Qualities of Police Leaders Required of Police Leaders Now and in the Future: Federation Press, Sydney, 1995. p. 72

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Modern Love

Looking for My Mother in All the Wrong People

Until I held my son for the first time.

By Sarah Malik Sayed

My cousin and I were standing on the balcony of her house in Lahore, smoking cigarettes in the breezeless night. It was my second trip to Pakistan that year. The first time, I hadn’t visited home in four years and needed to buy wedding clothes. The second time, just two months later, I bought my ticket on impulse. Relatives needled me, shocked at the expense of flying twice from Toronto.

The heat in Lahore was wet and smothering. I spent hours in an airless room in my father’s house, sweat sliding down my back.

My cousin and I were talking about our first marriages, hers broken when her husband left, mine ending eight years after I married at 20. After telling her that I had gone ahead with the marriage even though it felt wrong, she said, “Your mother once called you stupid.”

I hadn’t been thinking about my mother, who had been gone for 23 years. I was 7 when she died, but she was gone long before, more in the hospital than with my sister and me. As I stood on the threshold of another marriage, unable to trust myself, my cousin’s words opened a path through my tangled thoughts.

It was the eve of the Gulf War in 1990, and my family was living in Saudi Arabia. The trunk of our car held gas masks and a travel bag of clothes so my sister and I could be dropped off quickly at a family friend’s home whenever my mother had to be hospitalized.

My memories of my mother are incomplete and more troubling than comforting. On Eid, my sister and I, then 3 and 6, were dressed in matching silk lehengas and taken to the hospital to see my mother. We weren’t allowed in her room, so we sat on a wooden bench outside, and she came to the window to wave at us. My father pointed her out, but all I could see was the sun’s glare on the glass.

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