Essay On Broken Windows Theory

William Bratton, commissioner of the New York Police Department from 1994 to 1996, presided over a dramatic decline in the city’s crime rate. Hired by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani as part of a new crime fighting initiative, Bratton embraced the “broken windows” theory that had made him so successful as chief of the city’s transit police. According to this theory, when a community ignores small offenses such as a broken window on a parked car, larger offenses such as burglary, robbery, and assault inevitably follow. Conversely, serious crime can be prevented if a community polices the little

Kelling and Wilson’s article “Broken Windows” focuses on the importance of disorder in generating and sustaining crime that is more severe. The writers explain that disorder is not directly related to serious crime, but instead leads to increased fear as well as withdrawal from residents, which allows more serious crime to move in because of decreased levels of informal societal control. Kelling and Wilson believe that police can play a key role in disrupting this process. If they put their focus on disorder and minor crimes in neighborhoods that have not yet been overtaken by serious crime, they can help reduce fear and resident withdrawal. The promotion of advanced levels of informal social control can help people take control of their neighborhood

Wilson and Kelling’s key idea is that disorder and the absence of controls leads to crime. Their solution is to crack down on any disorder using a twofold strategy. First an environmental improvement strategy that any broken window must be repaired immediately, otherwise more will follow and the neighbourhood will be on the slide. Secondly the police must adopt a zero tolerance policing strategy. Instead of merely reacting to crime, the must proactively tackle even the slightest sign of disorder, even if it is not criminal. This

Departments that practice this type of policing believe that being proactive with quality-of-life violations instead of reactive will bring down the rate of more serious crimes. For example, “in the 1990s broken windows theory was first initiated New York City by Police Commissioner

I think you’re on to something with the hybrid idea. As you mentioned, just one method of police will not address all the issues. The broken windows method, focuses on measures meant to be preventive. By enforcing minor violations, they hope to deter the more serious crimes.

This paper is going to discuss the Broken Window Theory. According to the textbook, “the Broken Window Theory is an informal theory of police responsibilities when they are controlling low level disorders and the relationship to more serious crimes.” (Criminal Justice) According to the Britannica website, “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 neighborhoods. Their theory links disorder and incivility within a community to subsequent occurrences of serious crime.” The broken windows theory was introduced by James Q. Wilson and George Kelling in 1982. They created it as a metaphor for disorder within communities.

Violent crimes such as robbery, rape, and auto theft has decreased by 74% from 1990 to 2009 (Jeffery 1521). This shows how a strict crack down on the streets can trickle down and effect other crime rates. During this time period, crime rates nationally were down, but New York’s crime rates were down drastically more than other cities. Other facts point out that stop and Frisk was not very successful. Only 6% of New York City police stops led to an arrest, and only 3% of those stops led to a conviction of an arrest.

The decrease in stop-and-frisk also affected the crime rates of New York City. During de Blasio’s four years “...New York City

Disorders could also be of social such as the kinds of activities taking place in these neighborhoods. The Broken-windows theory creates a policy that suggests two key solutions when it comes to deteriorating crime. The first solution is by paying more attention to the minor crimes such as jaywalking and littering by making arrests to send out a message that these actions will not be done and tolerated. The second solution is a zero-tolerance

It is favoured by politicians and the media because of societal preference of a crime-control model which conforms to authoritarian populism. Importantly, being based on the theoretical framework of ‘Broken Windows’ lends credibility to the strategy, enabling continuing support for it. However, there is no substantiated empirical data to support the effectiveness of this strategy. Furthermore, the strategy has various costs associated with it, some of which were covered in this paper. Firstly, it hinders effective policing through taking away discretion which is a fundamental element of policing.

"The appeal of broken windows theory is both emotive and instrumental in nature. It is emotive because it harks back to a nostalgic construction of community and neighbourhoods as homogenous environments where clear standards of morality are known and respected". Broken Window approach was an academic theory proposed theory that used a building’s broken windows as a metaphor for a disorder within neighbourhoods. Their theory joins issue and incivility inside a group to ensuing events of genuine wrongdoing. As indicated by this method, a broken window that remains in place is a proclamation that no one thinks enough about the value of life in the neighborhood or area to cause any trouble to bother to fixing the miniscule things that go wrong.

In the field of law enforcement, the top priority is to reduce crime. People in law enforcement have theorized various methods as to what is most effective in controlling crime. The broken windows theory is one of these crime control theories. This theory states that disorder within the community can be directly linked to serious crimes, such as robbery, rape, and murder. The idea is that the police should monitor the community and manage it in order to prevent petty crimes. This watchful eye would create an environment where individuals are increasingly cautious of their actions. The outcome is that, in this environment where broken windows policing is enforced, the number of serious crimes are significantly decreased. The New

To put the broken windows theory to the test, Kelling was hired as a consultant by the New York City Transit Authority. The subway system was cleaned—specifically targeting graffiti removal. In 1990, William Bratton, an admirer of Kelling, took over the Transit Police and implemented a zero-tolerance for fare-dodging and easier processing of those arrested. These strategies, among others, became part of Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s “quality of life” initiative. [2] Was it effective? A later study of crime trends in New York City showed the rates of both petty and serious crime fell suddenly and significantly after these actions were instituted.

In the beginning of the 1990s, New York City was filled with violent crime. In the events of recent police shootings, citizens could not help but fear the possibility of the city going back to how it was during the 1990s and earlier violent era times. However, recent studies and reports have indicated that the city has never been as dangerous and violent as it was in earlier times. As by 2015, a modest decrease in the rate of serious reported crimes was noteworthy.

In the article Broken Windows, it gives the reader insight on what broken windows stands for and how it plays a role in policing. Broken windows is based on bad behavior or actions in the community. Just like a broken windows it symbolizes nobody cares, which leads to greater fear of crime and a lessens of community bad behavior, which in turn can lead to more serious crimes and greater signs of bad behavior, and it could turn into a repeating the cycle. "If a window is broken and left unrepaired, people walking by will conclude that no one cares and no one is in charge."(Wilson) This theory says that the little things matter. By focusing on the small acts of criminals, law enforcements hope to make the community have social control meaning taking control of their community and to prevent crime or corruption from happening. Broken Window philosophy has it positive and negative aspects. The theory states disorder causes fear in the community, and more crime to occur. Broken Windows strategy was to fight crime and keep the community safe from danger. In some ways Broken Windows did help the community and in other ways it didn’t. With that said I going on to talk about what Broken Windows has done for us in positive way.