There is a lot of critique of the theory as well. KZ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixing_Broken_Windows#Critics_of_the_theory
Critics of the theory Critics point to the fact that rates of major crimes also dropped in many other U.S. cities during the 1990s, both those that had adopted "zero tolerance" policies and those that had not. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixing_Broken_Windows#cite_note-8> [9] Other research has pointed out that the "zero tolerance" effect on serious crime is difficult to disentangle from other initiatives happening at around the same time in New York. These initiatives were 1) the police reforms described above, 2) programs that moved over 500,000 people into jobs from welfare at a time of economic buoyancy,[verification <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability> needed] and 3) housing vouchers that enabled poor families to move to better neighborhoods.[verification <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability> needed] Alternative explanations that have been put forward include: * The waning of the crack epidemic. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixing_Broken_Windows#cite_note-SLATE1-9> [10] * Unrelated growth in the prison population due to Rockefeller drug <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockefeller_drug_laws> laws. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixing_Broken_Windows#cite_note-SLATE1-9> [10] * That the number of males aged 16-24 was dropping regardless due to demographic changes and that abortion became legal. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixing_Broken_Windows#cite_note-FREAK-10> [11] David Thacher (assistant professor of public policy and urban planning at the University of <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Michigan> Michigan) stated in a 2004 paper that: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixing_Broken_Windows#cite_note-11> [12] "...social science has not been kind to the broken windows theory. A number of scholars reanalyzed the initial studies that appeared to support it ... Others pressed forward with new, more sophisticated studies of the relationship between disorder and crime. The most prominent among them concluded that the relationship between disorder and serious crime is modest, and even that relationship is largely an artifact of more fundamental social forces." Thacher goes on to state that: "These challenges to the broken windows theory have not yet discredited order maintenance policing with policymakers or the public." In the best-seller More Guns, Less <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_Guns,_Less_Crime> Crime (University of Chicago Press, 2000), economist <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economist> John <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lott,_Jr.> Lott, Jr. examined the use of the broken windows approach as well as community and problem oriented policing programs in cities over 10,000 in population over two decades. He found that the impact of these policing policies were not very consistent across different types of crime. He described the pattern as almost "random". For the broken windows approach, Lott found that the approach was actually associated with murder and auto theft rising and rapes and larceny falling. Increased arrest rates, affirmative action policies for hiring police, and right-to-carry laws were much more important in explaining the changes in crime rates. In the best-seller Freakonomics <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freakonomics> , economist <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economist> Steven D. Levitt <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_D._Levitt> and co-author Stephen J. Dubner <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_J._Dubner> cast doubt on the notion that the Broken Windows theory was wholly responsible for New York's drop in crime. He instead noticed that years before the 1990s, abortion was legalized. Women who were least able to raise kids (the poor, addicts and unstable) were able to get abortions, so the number of children being born in broken families was decreasing. Most crimes committed in New York are committed by 16-24 year old males; when this demographic decreased in number the crime rate followed. Refutations of their analysis appeared in The Wall Street <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wall_Street_Journal> Journal <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixing_Broken_Windows#cite_note-WSJ1-12> [13] and The Economist <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist> . <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixing_Broken_Windows#cite_note-Economist1-13> [14] The former quotes economists at the Federal Reserve <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reserve_Bank> Bank of Boston, who said, "[t]here are no statistical grounds for believing that the hypothetical youths who were aborted as fetuses would have been more likely to commit crimes had they reached maturity than the actual youths who developed from fetuses and carried to term." <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixing_Broken_Windows#cite_note-WSJ1-12> [13] Also, murder among the first post-Roe v. Wade <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roe_v._Wade> cohort was, in some states, 3.1 times higher than the last group born before legalized abortion. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixing_Broken_Windows#cite_note-SAILER1-14> [15] These data show crime increasing after the advent of legalized abortion, thus contradicting Levitt's and Dubner's conclusions. Furthermore, increased rates of incarceration accounts for some of the decline in crime rates discussed by Levitt and Dubner; the vicissitudes of the crack cocaine <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crack_cocaine> business also account for part of the rise and fall of crime rates during the period under discussion.[citation <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed> needed] In the Winter 2006 edition of the University of <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Chicago> Chicago Law Review, Bernard Harcourt <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Harcourt> and Jens <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jens_Ludwig> Ludwig looked at the later Department <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_of_Housing_and_Urban_Development> of Housing and Urban Development program that re-housed inner-city project tenants in New York into more orderly neighborhoods. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixing_Broken_Windows#cite_note-15> [16] The Broken Windows theory would suggest that these tenants would commit less crime once moved, due to the more stable conditions on the streets. Harcourt and Ludwig found instead that the tenants continued to commit crime at the same rate. In a further study in 2007 called "Reefer Madness" in the journal Criminology and Public Policy, Harcourt and Ludwig find further evidence confirming that "mean reversion <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_reversion> " fully explained the changes in crime rates in the different precincts in New York during the 1990s. _____ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jonathan Wetmiller Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 2:50 PM To: Charles Village Discussion List; Charles Village Chat List Subject: Re: [Discussion] Study of "Broken Windows" theory of crimeprevention Interesting. There was also an article in The Economist a few weeks ago about a series of experiments in the Netherlands that reached similar conclusions: http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12630201&CFID=480 64737&CFTOKEN=30048721 -Jon --- On Fri, 3/20/09, Emil Volcheck <[email protected]> wrote: From: Emil Volcheck <[email protected]> Subject: [Discussion] Study of "Broken Windows" theory of crime prevention To: "Charles Village Discussion List" <[email protected]>, "Charles Village Chat List" <[email protected]> Date: Friday, March 20, 2009, 7:27 PM Hello, neighbors, I recommend this story in the online edition of the Boston Globe which reports on a study in Lowell, MA that tested the "broken windows" theory of crime prevention using a controlled experiment: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/02/08/breakthro ugh_on_broken_windows/ . --Emil -- Emil Volcheck [email protected] http://EmilVolcheck.com/ _______________________________________________ Discussion mailing list [email protected] http://charlesvillage.info/mailman/listinfo/discussion_charlesvillage.info
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