Example Of Report On “Broken Windows” Theory

“Broken Windows” is an article, which was written by George Kelling and James Wilson. From the article, New Jersey State had focused on establishing a program regarded as “Safe and Clean Neighborhoods”. The program had an aim of improving the community life in terms of quality for the twenty-eight cities. Financial resources were allocated to police officers to ensure that they moved from the use of patrol cars to using walking beats. Foot patrols made the state officials including governors to feel that security would improve, but the police chiefs were not for this move. Police chiefs thought that foot patrol was discredited, reduced police patrol and weakened the ability of police chiefs to control the officers in patrol successfully.
Police officers were not happy with the situation of using police patrols. They argued that police patrols was a hard task and denied them good shelter since they would stay out in cold nights and rainy seasons. Further, foot patrol was regarded as a means of punishing police officers. Moreover, academic experts doubted the integrity of foot patrols, but since the state funded this program, local authorities had no option other than adhere to what is available.
Foot patrol project begun to be evaluated within five years after the start of the program. The results of the evaluation indicated that foot patrol had not contributed significantly towards the reduction of crime. Nevertheless, residents within areas where foot patrol was effective, they felt more secure. The findings support the skeptical nature of police chiefs. A question one would ask is how is the neighborhood safer when the crime rate has not reduced significantly? This could be answered by focusing the cause of fear among people in public places, which is mainly attack by strangers and other forms of crimes. The other common fear is the bother from disorderly people.
Foot patrol did a significant act of elevating the magnitude of public order within the neighborhoods. Kelling spent considerable amount of time with foot patrol officers to get their experience. The report from Kelling indicated that foot patrol police officers face several challenges. They originate from ethnical and cultural background and the working environment they are exposed to. Further, Kelling reported that each of the neighborhoods had structured rules, though in most of the places the rules were common. This contributed towards the attainment of order in the neighborhood.
Broken window theory was an experimental testing conducted by Philip Zimbardo, in 1969. From the experiment, Philip found that vandalism was a common activity within the neighborhood. People tend to engage in such activities that they might not have intended to engage in. Therefore, violent attacks, which might be directed to strangers and crimes may flourish, which may affect the security level of a neighborhood. Furthermore, people may develop the concept that serious crime is increasing. As such, these people tend to formulate measures and strategies, which they adopt in order to address the issue of the crimes successfully. An example of such a measure would be the ability of people to keep off the streets. Other people may migrate. These acts render the location vulnerable to criminal invasion. However, some people such as the elderly are ever disadvantaged, which makes it impossible for them to relocate to new areas. On the same note, the elderly tend to be victims of crime in comparison to the young people.
Broken window is a common theory, which affects the neighborhood. The emergence of several cases of broken window is based on social and moral behavior of the community members. This means that addressing community members’ behavioral patterns would address the issue of broken window successfully. Furthermore, the activity of the police while on the streets needs to be addressed to ensure that the standards of quality of life within the neighborhood are improved. This should focus on ensuring that the police in patrol carry out their duties effectively.
The judicial system and the police force have to work together. This would ensure effective enforcement of law and order and addressing the issue of equity, which a major cause of crimes. On the same note, the citizens must work together with the police in order to ensure that the concept of law and order is addressed effectively. This is because as the police focus on protection of individuals and communities, they need the support of the citizens. Communal losses based on crime develop because of individual losses. As such, the police should focus on ensuring that the communities remain intact and there are minimal instances of windows being broken.