Approaches To The Broken Windows Policy Explained Criminology Essay

Approaches To The Broken Windows Policy Explained Criminology Essay 1. Explain the Broken Windows theory of policing. Describe the advantages and disadvantages of this approach. Detail the two most important benefits and the two pitfalls of such an approach to policing. Police departments, in the past twenty years, have adopted a theory that says by resolving minor disorders serious crimes can be reduced. It is called the broken windows theory, â€Å"also known as â€Å"order-maintenance,†Ã¢â‚¬ zero-tolerance,† or â€Å"quality-of-life† policing.† (Harcourt & Ludwig, Winter 2006, p. 282) It came to the forefront after a 1982 Atlantic Monthly article by James Q. Wilson and George Kelling. The article argued that when low-level quality-of-life offenses were tolerated in a community, more serious crime would follow. The broken windows theory says that â€Å"the variation in disorder in neighborhoods that explains the variation in crime, holding structural disadvantage constant. The real trigger is disorderliness itself.â₠¬  (Harcourt & Ludwig, p. 281) According to this view, broken windows, abandoned buildings, public drinking, litter and loitering cause good people to stay in their houses or move out of the neighborhood entirely. The theory argues â€Å"that the minor events and incivilities that frightened people, far from being a distraction for police departments, should be identified as key targets of police action.† (Moore, 1992, p. 138) It leaves criminals free to roam and send a message that law violations are not taken seriously. â€Å"The focus of the broken windows policing strategy is to address community anxiety about public safety. Broken windows advocates argue that the role of the police is fundamentally to maintain public order.† (Dammert & Malone, Winter 2006, p. 39) Some of the advantages of the broken windows policing are that it reduces social and physical disorders, furthers joint safety endeavors, and bring communities together. â€Å"Broken windows theory assu mes an essentialist notion both of disorder and its connection to perception: visual cues are unambiguous and natural in meaning† (Sampson & Raudenbush, Dec. 2004, p. 320). The theory’s biggest test has been in New York City, where a dramatic decline in crime has been attributed in large part to â€Å"order maintenance.† Rundown parts of the city have been cleaned up, and police focus more on such problems as panhandling, turnstile jumping, and public drinking. Police have even cracked down on people who clean the windshields of cars at stoplights with squeegees (Parenti, 1999, p.77). Among the first and hardest hit were the homeless, who travel, beg, and live in the political and physical basement of the class system: the city’s six-story-deep concrete bowels. Advocates of such tactics argued that in order to address these crimes, the police must be afforded wide discretion and should not be hamstrung by constitutional rules. Still â€Å"broken windowsâ €  enforcement has won a proper place among trends in criminal-justice reform. But in doing so, the police ignored the principal lesson of their own theory. If the toleration of minor law violations leads to more serious crime on the street, it would also follow that the toleration of minor law violations by the police will lead to more serious crime on the force. And that is precisely what has happened. â€Å"The broken windows theory suggests that minor disorders, both physical†¦and social†¦is causally related to serious crime.† (Harcourt, 2001, p.68) â€Å"Broken windows gives rise to â€Å"wars† on the poor, racism, and police brutality.† (Weisburd & Braga, 2007, p. 80) As mayor, Giuliani appeared to show his eagerness to impose law and order at all costs with the implementation of the zero tolerance policy. This led to a dramatic increase in arrests for such crimes as riding a bike on the sidewalk and playing loud music.