Summary of the Article Broken Windows: The Police and Neighborhood Safety
Summary of the Article Broken Windows: The Police and Neighborhood Safety
Introduction
This article published in Atlantic Magazine, 1982, illustrates an important of broken windows theory in criminal justice literature. This paper shall give a summary of the article. In the article, the authors analyses a study of police patrolling on foot in Newark, New Jersey. The presence of foot patrolling police officers gave the public a perception that they were safe and that the level of crime was low, while in real sense the police presence had no impact on the crime rate. Their perception of safety was resulted from the police performing real functions that were important; maintaining a visible order in the areas. The officers patrolling on foot silenced rowdy youths, dispersed gatherings on street corners, dealt with drunks, and noticed unusual activities. This showed law enforcement was being conducted and thus the public was willing to enforce the community rules and regulations themselves (Kelling and Wilson, 1982).
Disorder can usually result in criminal activities and vice versa, especially at a community level as opposed to an individual level. Social scientist and law enforcers agree that, when a window of a house is broken and remain unrepaired; all the other windows would soon be broken - regardless of the neighborhood. The window that is not fixed sends the message of carelessness and thus breaking more windows would have no consequences.
There is also a discussion by the authors of a social experiment, by a psychologist, conducted with an abandoned car. A car was placed in two different neighborhoods streets, one in Bronx and a similar car in Palo Alto, California. The car in Bronx was vandalized and stripped off of its useful parts with in the first hours of its abandonment. In Palo Alto, the car was not vandalized initially, for weeks. Vandalism started when the car appeared damaged. The experiment conductor smashed the windows of the car, and Palo Alto residents viewed the car as disposable hence engaging in destruction of the car.
Conclusion and Recommendations Provided in the Article
The two authors suggest that, Firstly there should be a variant of ‘Abandoned Car’ experiment to determine what strategy works best for a particular community. Secondly, Strategies of maintenance of order with minimal police involvement should be applied in communities. Citizen patrols would be one of such strategy to be implemented. Maintaining order by community members is in two ways: volunteer community watchmen and vigilantes.
Volunteer community watchmen patrolled their neighborhoods to maintain order, without taking the law into their own hands i.e. without the use of force or threat of punishment. They rely on their presence to change or discourage disorder in their neighborhood. Vigilantes, on the other hand, - as a group of persons patrolling their neighborhood – are known to take the law into their hands by acting as police officer, judge and executioner. However, the responsibility to maintain public order lies mostly with the police. Officers have great responsibility to respond to maintenance of order than other community members (Kelling and Wilson, 1982).
References
Kelling, G., L., & Wilson, J., Q. (1982). Broken Windows: The Police and Neighborhood Safety. Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/03/broken-windows/304465/?single_page=true
