Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-6dbcb7884d-hdw28 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-13T17:43:42.287Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - Advocate Of “broken windows,” criminology, and criminal justice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2009

By
William H. Sousa  and
George L. Kelling
Edited by
David Weisburd  and
Anthony A. Braga
William H. Sousa
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice University of Nevada Las Vegas
George L. Kelling
Affiliation:
Professor in the School of Criminal Justice Rutgers University, Newark, faculty chair of the Police Institute at Rutgers University
David Weisburd
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Anthony A. Braga
Affiliation:
Harvard University, Massachusetts
Get access

Summary

Introduction: a few up-front discourses

Despite attacks from the criminological, legal, and academic left, “broken windows” theory is a robust policy option in criminal justice practice and crime prevention. It has not only fueled the community policing movement, it has also informed the evolution of community courts, community prosecution, and community probation and parole. The Midtown Community Court in Manhattan, to give just one example, emphasizes that broken windows is integral to its philosophy and practice. Moreover, the ideas embodied in broken windows have moved beyond criminal justice and criminology to areas like public health, education, parks, and business improvement districts (BIDs).

The original article (Wilson and Kelling 1982), published in the Atlantic, has had surprising “legs.” Although exact figures are not available, circulation staff of the Atlantic have told both James Q. Wilson and Kelling (one of the authors of this paper), that “Broken Windows” has been reproduced more than any other article in Atlantic's history. Moreover, familiarity with broken windows is widespread internationally: Fixing Broken Windows, published by Kelling and Catherine M. Coles in 1996, has been translated into Spanish, Polish, and Japanese. The vast publicity, of course, associated with both the restoration of order in New York's subways during the early 1990s and the crime reduction in the city itself in the mid-1990s contributed to the popularization of broken windows, especially since both then Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Police Commissioner William Bratton repeatedly identified it as a key part of their policing strategy.

Type
Chapter
Information
Police Innovation
Contrasting Perspectives
 , pp. 77 - 97
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Blumstein, A. and Wallman, J. (eds.). (2000). The crime drop in America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bowling, B. (1999). The rise and fall of New York murder: zero tolerance or crack's decline?British Journal of Criminology, 39 (4), 531–554.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braga, A. A., Weisburd, D. L., Waring, E. J., Mazerolle, L. G., Spelman, W., and Gajewski, F. (1999). Problem-oriented policing in violent crime places: a randomized controlled experiment. Criminology, 37 (3), 541–580.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cloward, R. A. and Ohlin, L. E. (1960). Delinquency and opportunity: A theory of delinquent gangs. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Corman, H. and Mocan, N. (2002). Carrots, sticks and broken windows. NBER Working Paper 9061. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eck, J. E. and Maguire, E. R. (2000). Have changes in policing reduced violent crime? An assessment of the evidence. In Blumstein, A. and Wallman, J. (eds.), The crime drop in America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Glazer, N. (1979). On subway graffiti in New York. The Public Interest, 54 (Winter), 3–11.Google Scholar
Green, L. (1996). Policing places with drug problems. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Greene, J. A. (1999). Zero tolerance: a case study of police policies and practices in New York City. Crime and Delinquency, 45 (2), 171–187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harcourt, B. E. (1998). Reflecting on the subject: a critique of the social influence conception of deterrence, the broken windows theory, and order-maintenance policing New York style. Michigan Law Review, 97, 291–389.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hirschi, T. and Selvin, H. C. (1966). False criteria of causality in delinquency research. Social Problems, 13, 254–268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacobs, J. (1961). The death and life of great American cities. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Jang, S. J. and Johnson, B. R. (2001). Neighborhood disorder, individual religiosity, and adolescent use of illicit drugs: a test of multilevel hypotheses. Criminology, 39 (1), 109–144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karmen, A. (ed.). (1999). Crime and justice in New York City. New York: Primis Custom Publishing.Google Scholar
Karmen, A. (2000). New York murder mystery: The true story behind the crime crash of the 1990s. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Katz, C. M., Webb, V. J., and Schaefer, D. R. (2001). An assessment of the impact of quality-of-life policing on crime and disorder. Justice Quarterly, 18 (4), 825–876.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelling, G. L. (2001). Broken windows and the culture wars: a response to selected critiques. In Matthews, R. and Pitts, J. (eds.), Crime, disorder, and community safety. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelling, G. L. and Coles, C. M. (1996). Fixing broken windows: Restoring order and reducing crime in our communities. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Kelling, G. L. and Sousa, W. H. (2001). Do police matter? An analysis of the impact of New York City's police reforms. Civic Report No. 22. New York: Manhattan Institute.Google Scholar
Kelling, G. L., Pate, A., Ferrara, A., Utne, M., and Brown, C. E. (1981). Newark foot patrol experiment. Washington, DC: Police Foundation.Google Scholar
LaGrange, R. L., Ferraro, K. F., and Supancic, M. (1992). Perceived risk and fear of crime: role of social and physical incivilities. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 29 (3), 311–334.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Novak, K. J., Hartman, J. L., Holsinger, A. M., and Turner, M. G. (1999). The effects of aggressive policing of disorder on serious crime. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies and Management, 22 (2), 171–190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oxford English Dictionary (2nd ed.). (1989). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Pierce, G. L., Spaar, S. A., and Briggs, L. R. (1984). The character of police work: Implications for the delivery of services. Boston: Center for Applied Social Research, Northeastern University.Google Scholar
President's Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice (1967). The challenge of crime in a free society. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.
Ross, C. E. and Jang, S. J. (2000). Neighborhood disorder, fear, and mistrust: the buffering role of social ties with neighbors. American Journal of Community Psychology, 28 (4), 401–420.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sampson, R. J. and Raudenbush, S. W. (1999). Systematic social observation of public spaces: a new look at disorder in urban neighborhoods. American Journal of Sociology, 105 (3), 603–651.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sherman, L. W. (1989). Repeat calls for service: policing the “hot spots.” In Kenney, D. J. (ed.), Police and policing: Contemporary issues. New York: Praeger Publishers.Google Scholar
Sherman, L. W., Gartin, P. P., and Buerger, M. E. (1989). Hot spots of predatory crime: routine activities and the criminology of place. Criminology, 27(1), 27–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simons, R. (1995). Control in an age of empowerment. Harvard Business Review (March–April), 80–88.Google Scholar
Skogan, W. G. (1990). Disorder and decline: Crime and the spiral of decay in American neighborhoods. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Skogan, W. G. and Maxfield, M. G. (1981). Coping with crime: Individual and neighborhood reactions. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Sousa, W. (2003). Crime reduction in New York City: The impact of the NYPD. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ.
Stewart, G. (1998). Black codes and broken windows: the legacy of racial hegemony in anti-gang civil injunctions. Yale Law Journal, 107 (7), 2249–2279.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, R. B. (2001). Breaking away from broken windows. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Thacher, D. (2004). Order maintenance reconsidered: moving beyond strong causal reasoning. The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 94 (2), 101–133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weisburd, D. and Eck, J. E. (2004). What can police do to reduce crime, disorder, and fear?The Annals, 593, 42–65.Google Scholar
Weisburd, D., Maher, L. and Sherman, L. (1993). Contrasting crime general and crime specific theory: the case of hot spots of crime. Advances in Criminological Theory, 4, 45–70.Google Scholar
Wilson, J. Q. (1968). Varieties of police behavior. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, J. Q. and Kelling, G. L. (1982). Broken windows: the police and neighborhood safety. The Atlantic Monthly, March, 29–38.Google Scholar
Worrall, J. L. (2002). Does “broken windows” law enforcement reduce serious crime? CICG Research Brief. Sacramento, CA: California Institute for County Government.Google Scholar
Xu, Y., Fiedler, M. L., and Flaming, K. H. (2005). Discovering the impact of community policing: the broken windows thesis, collective efficacy, and citizens' judgement. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 42 (2), 147–186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×