Essay On Broken Window Theory

In March 1982, criminologists named George L. Kelling and James Q. Wilson developed a theory called “Broken Windows Theory”. This theory suggests that crime is most likely to occur within a part of a city that is neglected, “if a window in a building is left broken and is left unrepaired, all the rest of the windows will soon be broken” (Kelling, Wilson, 1982). The name suggests that windows should be fixed immediately, most likely linking to stopping crimes no matter how minor. The article goes into the details of how policing had taken action towards minor offenses such as; public drunkenness, loitering, and vandalism. In this review, I will be assessing urban decay, police authority and racial tensions subcategories of the Broken Windows Theory. If cities do not take action, it is possible for them to
fall into anarchy. The Broken Windows has been proven to be successful in big cities, but if pushed to directly the police can come off as harassing the citizens.

Urban Decay

Urban decay can be described as a city decaying due to minor crimes, which can be preventable. This can be compared to the broken windows theory, where they believe that to stop urban decay is to focus on smaller crimes, which affect larger crimes that contribute to the city as a whole, “early disorder diagnosis and intervention are of vital importance when fighting the spread of disorder" (Bailey, 2008) which is mentioned in the article 'Is Crime Contagious?'. Within a crime infused city, comes the down spiral of a society, leaving the upper class to abandon the city. We introduce the Broken Windows theory in these situations, to prevent further damaging to the decaying city. “Residents begin to view their neighborhood as unsafe, and retreat into their homes-or to the suburbs-abandoning the declining neighborhood to criminals” (Brook, 2006). This can be resolved by using police authority to subdue the city from falling apart.

Police Authority

The Broken Windows theory revolves around the subject of police authority towards crimes and misdemeanors.
Whether we act out in anger towards the system, our society needs the influence of authority to help contain acts of violence. That is why Philip Zimbardo conducted an experiment to test the Broken Windows theory. In 1969, he had placed a car with no license plate in the Bronx and in Palo Alto to view who would approach the car. Within the first ten minutes in the Bronx a family robbed it, and to encourage the theory, in Palo Alto, Zimbardo took a sledgehammer to the car. People viewed the damaging to the car and joined in soon after. His results showed that yes; if you leave a window broken the rest of the windows would follow and that the so-called vandals were clean-cut whites, which is why "vandalism can occur anywhere once communal barriers—the sense of mutual regard and the obligations of civility" (Kelling, Wilson, 1982). This tells us that even law-abiding citizens could commit minor crimes if pushed or encouraged. Using the force of police authority to prevent crimes by lurking or instilling fear among the people would be seen as necessary or
helpful.

Racial Tensions

It has been seen that between both parties of people of colour and police officers that tensions occur frequently. To clear the negative attention of run-down neighbourhoods was to have the police have foot-patrol observing on standby of the neighbourhood. Although these neighbourhoods were mainly black and the police were typically white, both parties became satisfied with the result of less crimes within the area.