Broken Windows Essay

Essay on Broken Windows

Introduction

The theory of Broken Windows was introduced by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling and was published in “The Atlantic Monthly” in March 1982, titled Broken Windows: The Police and Neighbor Safety. The theory suggests that if a broken windows is left unrepaired in a vacant building, it leads to further broken windows, squabbled criminologist George L. Kelling and political scientist James Q. Wilson around two decades ago that pretty crimes and disorders, if ignored, make law abiding citizens frightened, put a neighborhood on the skid and more often lead to much serious crime. They argued that by catching up panhandlers, drunks and rowdy youths, the police could cut down the rate of urban decay and serious crime. In the mid 1990s, police in New York and other cities initiated to take this advice and surprisingly the crime rate dropped down. However, there certain glitches in this theory which makes it fundamentally flawed. (Wilson & Kelling, 1982)

Discussion

The broken windows theory and the policing strategies derived from it have remained highly controversial despite of its surface plausibility and claims made about its efficaciousness. Its implications have also been widely misunderstood by the critics as well as the followers. However, broken windows policing has frequently been connected with zero tolerance policing. Zero tolerance policing, where police officers are permitted to oppress the interests and wants of communities to overcome the rate of crime in the area.

Arguments have been made that the application of the broken windows style of policing leads to negative results for the poor and minority residents of the area impacted. Do you agree/disagree why?

It's true that broken windows style of policing affected the poor and minority residents of the area since this theory brought a revolution in neighborhood activism and law enforcement where building owners were ordered to replace the broken windows, graffiti artists were asked to scrub the walls clean, abandoned cars were hauled away and drunks on the sidewalks were also put off the streets but these steps were only good enough to tidy up a neighborhood.

According to a research conducted by social psychologists Stephen W. Raudenbush and Robert J. Sampson, the study of 196 census territories in Chicago confirmed that class and race became more significant for the whites, Latinos and Blacks than the actual disorder. The study also proved that race was a main factor in how residents of an area perceived their neighborhood. And so, white inhabitants were far more likely to report a disorder than Latino or Black inhabitants residing in the same neighborhood. The situation was no better in areas where a good percentage of families were living in poverty. In neighborhoods with majority of poor people, the residents professed much more disorder despite of the objective state of the neighborhood. The research also showed same results about the perceptions of Black residents. With the increase of African Americans in the neighborhood, the percentage of Black inhabitants who examined their neighborhood to be in chaos also ...