Tag: Broken Windows Policing

Neighborhood Disorder – MOST Policy Initiative

Neighborhood disorder includes physical and social disruptions.
Disorder, also referred to as incivility, can refer to a variety of norm violating behaviors and conditions (Skogan 2015). Disorder is often categorized as physical disorder or social disorder. Social disorder refers to potentially threatening behavior from strangers while physical disorder refers to the deterioration of the urban landscape (Sampson and Raudenbush 1999).

Physical disorder in neighborhoods includes (Ndjilia et al 2019):

Broken windows
Trash
Empty bottles
Deteriorated, vacant, or run-down buildings
Graffiti or vandalism
Discarded needles or drug paraphernalia
In contrast, social disorder in neighborhoods includes:

Crime
Public alcohol use
Drug use or trafficking
Unwillingness to help neighbors
Prostitution
Absence of interpersonal relationships
— Read on mostpolicyinitiative.org/science-note/neighborhood-disorder/

NYPD quality-of-life subway crackdown aimed at finding criminal offenders

A homeless man accused of shoplifting 17 times at the same Queens Duane Reade and menacing a security guard was back behind bars after police took him into custody for stretching out across several subway seats, the Daily News has learned. The NYPD said the Feb. 7 arrest of Luis Caballero, 36, is an example of how enforcing NYC Transit rules maintains order in the subway system and often leads …
— Read on www.yahoo.com/news/nypd-quality-life-subway-crackdown-130000503.html

Fixing ‘Broken Windows’ theory: Smart — not harsh — policing is the key to a safe and orderly city

If you’re familiar with the Broken Windows theory of policing, you may have learned of it, perhaps indirectly, from Malcolm Gladwell’s bestseller “The Tipping Point,” published 25 years ago.
— Read on nypost.com/2025/01/05/opinion/fixing-broken-windows-theory-smart-not-harsh-policing-is-the-key-to-a-safe-and-orderly-city/

Broken Windows Policing Is Still the Best Way to Fight Crime

If you’re familiar with the Broken Windows theory of policing, you may have learned of it, perhaps indirectly, from Malcolm Gladwell’s bestseller The Tipping Point, published 25 years ago. In the book’s most-discussed chapter, Gladwell sought to explain why New York City, in the 1990s, suddenly experienced the greatest drop in violent crime ever recorded. True, other cities saw crime declines in this period, but nowhere else did crime plunge so significantly and so swiftly. In just a few years, New York went from being one of the most dangerous and frightening big cities in America to one of the safest. Why?

Gladwell surveyed various possibilities having to do with the economy, changing demographics, and the waning of the deadly crack trade, but found them unpersuasive. The real difference-maker, he said, was the NYPD’s commitment to Broken Windows policing—the disarmingly simple idea that serious crimes are more likely to occur in disorderly environments than orderly ones. By upgrading people’s surroundings, the theory says, you can improve their behavior.
— Read on www.city-journal.org/article/broken-windows-policing-crime-malcolm-gladwell