Sociologyindex |
BROKEN WINDOW THEORY |
Sociology Books 2008 |
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Broken Window is the title of a 1982 article by criminologist
James Q. Wilson and George Kelling. This simple theory argues that a broken window left un
repaired will make a building look uncared for or abandoned and soon attract vandals to
break all the other windows.
Broken Window Theory suggests that the prevention of crime
will be accomplished by steps like painting over graffiti, keeping buildings in good
repair, maintaining clean streets and parks and responding effectively to petty street
crime.
These actions make citizens feel safer and when they frequent
public places criminal activity is less likely to occur. Many jurisdictions in North
America have adopted practices based on this Broken Window perspective.
Researchers link 'broken windows' policing with drop in
serious crime - John L. Worrall, the CSU San Bernardino criminal justice professor
- Full Report - cicg.org/publications/CICG_Brief_Aug_2002.pdf
There is a significant link between targeting minor crime and
a drop in serious crime, even when community factors such as unemployment and the number
of young people are considered, according to a study from the California Institute for
County Government at California State University, Sacramento.
The study, "Does 'Broken Windows' Law Enforcement Reduce Serious Crime?"
examined all California counties from 1989 to 2000.
It found for the first time a generalizeable statistical tie between so-called
"broken windows" policing and a drop in felony property crime while also
controlling for so many social and economic factors. It's also one of the few studies to
look at the strategy on a large scale, rather than a neighborhood or community level.
Broken windows policing assumes that serious crime can be reduced by strongly enforcing
minor crimes such as graffiti, property damage, prostitution, public drunkenness and the
like. It has been the subject of heated debate, with many police agencies adopting it and
critics charging it leads to police harassment.
Previous studies have tended to focus on single jurisdictions, and haven't been able to
discount numerous other possible factors when they discovered drops in serious crime.
This new study compared both misdemeanor arrests and misdemeanor
charges filed to the overall number of arrests and charges. More misdemeanor arrests and
charges were taken to indicate a local law enforcement tendency to engage in broken window
policing. That tendency was then compared to the felony property crime rate to see if a
link existed.
"We've tested the spirit of the broken windows theory, and we've found a relationship
between targeting misdemeanors and reducing serious crime," says John L. Worrall, the
CSU San Bernardino criminal justice professor who authored the study.
Worrall cautions that the focus of this study was finding a statistical link between
enforcing minor crimes and a drop in serious crime. So it doesn't conclusively prove a
cause and effect relationship, and it doesn't estimate how much of a drop in crime is seen
when a community pursues a broken windows strategy.
"What makes this study unique is all the other factors we controlled for, and that
even after we did that we still found a strong statistical relationship between broken
windows policing and a reduction in serious crime," Worrall says. "This is by no
means the last word on the broken window theory, but it is an important
contribution." |
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The "Broken Window Theory" has inspired police departments in New York and
other major cities to crack down on the small stuff in order to keep out the big stuff. It
works: keeping on top of broken windows, graffiti, and other small infractions has reduced
the serious crime level. - Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas - Don't Live with Broken Windows.
Reconsidering the 'Broken Windows' Theory
by Marcus Rosenbaum - Nation - Morning Edition, March 3, 2005 ·
For 20 years, something called the "broken windows" theory has guided some
social policy and many city police departments. The theory holds that disorder in urban
neighborhoods leads people to be disorderly. New research shows that people's perceptions
of disorder don't always match the actual disorder in their neighborhoods.
From: Broken Windows - The police and neighborhood safety - March 1982
by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling
"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."
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