This article from National Review Online of February 28, 2006, updates the continued effectiveness of the Broken Windows Theory, which we mention in our Lower Reach Report, www.arpps.org as the tool that needs to be used in that area of the Parkway to stop illegal camping by the homeless, which has grown to epidemic proportions through lack of enforcement of the illegal camping laws.
The thesis is that if the community and local police allow broken windows in abandoned buildings, or any form of blight or misdemeanor crime to reign unchecked, it will attract more crime of a more serious nature.
This was the tool Mayor Rudolf Giuliani and Police Chief Bratton (article co-author and now LA police Chief) used to clean up New York.
Many have tried to disprove this theory but it remains a vital law enforcement tool of proven effectiveness.
Here is an excerpt.
There Are No Cracks in the Broken Windows
Ideological academics are trying to undermine a perfectly good idea.
By William Bratton & George Kelling
We've argued for many years that when police pay attention to minor offenses — such as prostitution, graffiti, aggressive panhandling — they can reduce fear, strengthen communities, and prevent serious crime. One of us co-originated (with James Q. Wilson) this theory, which has come to be known as "fixing broken windows"; the other implemented it in New York City, first as chief of the transit police under Mayor David Dinkins, and then more broadly as police commissioner under Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Yet despite the demonstrable success of this theory, some criminologists and sociologists continue to attack it, with arguments that are factually and philosophically false. Policymakers should not be misled by these misrepresentations into returning our cities to the failed police policies of the past.
According to a recent Boston Globe article by Daniel Brook, for instance, "scholars are starting to question whether fixing broken windows really fixes much at all." In fact, the theory always had its critics. Some were anti-police groups seizing any opportunity to detract from police achievements. Others were liberals who deeply resented Giuliani and his policies.
An early charge of these critics was that the police had to be "cooking the books." They abandoned this argument, though, as the homicide rate in New York City plunged, from 2,262 murders in 1990 to 629 in 1998; it's hard to hide that many bodies.
Others argued that crime reductions came with an unacceptable level of police harassment and brutality. This charge was not sustainable, either. Police shootings, and complaints against police, actually declined in New York City during the Giuliani years. In 1998, police shootings reached their lowest level since the 1970s, when data on police shootings was first recorded.
The most sustained attack on broken windows and NYPD achievements has not been practical or factual, but political and ideological. Many social scientists are wedded to the idea that crime is caused by the structural features of a capitalist society — especially economic injustice, racism, and poverty. They assume that true crime reduction can come only as the result of economic reform, redistribution of wealth, and elimination of poverty and racism.
Responding to such academic criticism is difficult when it claims support in "scientific" evidence. While challenges to their scientific research on the basis of research design, sampling methodology, data interpretation, or misrepresentation of theories can come across as academic quibbling, these elements of research lie at the core of the issue and determine the validity of conclusions reached.
