Broken Window Metaphors In Wagers, Sousa, And Kelling

The one broken window (e.g., a persistent beggar, a group of intimidating teens, excessive litter, graffiti, and individuals sleeping in public places) gives the impression to potential wrongdoers that no one cares how people act in or treat the neighborhood, opening the door to more serious lawbreaking.The one broken window (e.g., a persistent beggar, a group of intimidating teens, excessive litter, graffiti, and individuals sleeping in public places) gives the impression to potential wrongdoers that no one cares how people act in or treat the neighborhood, opening the door to more serious lawbreaking.
In their empirical testing of broken windows policing, Wagers, Sousa, and Kelling
(2008, p. 253) further assess the main tenets of broken windows,
Wilson and Kelling were not the first to posit a link between disorder, crime, and fear of crime (e.g., Jacobs, 1961; Zimbardo, 1970; Glazer, 1979), however their broken window metaphor and the progressively popular community policing movement combined to make change more palpable to police departments looking to advance their services. The broken windows metaphor aided police administrators in understanding the relationship between disorder, crime, and the fear of crime, gave line-officer supervisors tangible tactics to employ in carrying out the theory, and spoke to those line-officers who had already been doing broken windows policing in fulfilling their day-to-day duties.
Researchers variously differentiate among community policing, broken windows policing and problem-solving, and yet these concepts are often implemented in conjunction with each other. This current research traces the CPS efforts of police departments, paying special attention to their attempts at broken windows policing. An
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initial examination of the police departments, discussions with George Kelling (who had recently consulted with each of the police departments), an understanding of the