Essay On Broken Window Theory

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Pages: 2

In 1980, James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling claimed that petty crimes were up roaring law abiding citizens and could possibly trigger the rise in serious crimes if there was no accountability.[2] The link between disorderly conduct and serious crime was considered to be the broken window theory.[2] The broken window theory is based on if minor offenses that could lead to serious crimes.[2] Wilson annotated an explanation in the book “Fixing Broken Windows” that Kelling and Catherine M. Coles wrote.[2] He claimed that using the words broken windows explains how neighborhoods could decline over time with vandalism, disorder and crime.[2] For instance, if a building had one window busted out someone that passed by may think that it’s abandoned …show more content…
le, Head of the Transit Police, Bratton enforced the laws on graffiti and turnstile-jumping in New York.[1] Also, he shut down a so-called “squeegee men.”[1] As a result violent crime decreased nearly 51 percent in New York City in the 1990s, and homicide decreased 72 percent.[1] These remarkable milestones breathe life back into the broken windows theory and the inspired policies that nothing is too hard to accomplish.[1] According to some critics policing low-level offenses brings unreasonable side effects; while others don’t think it plays a part.[1] Besides, several critics have claimed that the broken windows reveal that violent crime happened in New York when unemployment plunged and the economy strengthened which could have resulted in the vanishing of squeegee guys.[1] There was a convincing 2006 article in the University of Chicago Law Review by Bernard Harcourt and Jens Ludwig debated that the crime decline in 1990s in New York was equivalent to the crack epidemic that had devastate the city prior to.[1] While on the other researchers results from their experiments expound on that disorder has no effect on crime; but the disorder and crime co-exist together, and are mutually effected by the same social and economic