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Criminal Justice System; Theorist Perspective
Analysis of the Broken Window Theory
The broken window model is a brainchild of Wilson Kelling as he described it in his article way back in 1982. The article capitalizes on supposed essence of disorder such as a broken window in encouraging serious crime. Although there is no direct correlation between disorder and serious crime, it leads to a heightened level of fear that inspires one to withdraw from society. Consequently, the scenario leads to crime because informal social control is then reduced.
The police can intervene in such a scenario effectively. They can focus on less serious crime and disorder in communities that are not known for serious crime and effectively quash incidences of withdrawal and fear by residents. Encouraging informal social control among these communities can enhance the responsibilities of such communities in taking control of events in their neighborhood and forestalling crime.
It is difficult to assess or measure the actual value of the broken window theory in policing. The model has been applied by several security agencies with varying intensity and attention to the detail of Wilson Kelling (1982). One of the most outstanding cases of the application...
On the other hand, there are incidences (in some agencies) in which the broken window theory has been closely related to non-tolerant policing. In such cases, disorder has been expressed/regarded as a crime and offenders have been booked or even arrested. According to Kelling, the broken windows approach is more detailed than just zero tolerance policing (1996). It is deduced that the model's effectiveness cannot justifiably be evaluated solely on the basis of number of police arrests without regard to the discretion of the officer. A possible problem of embarking on such evaluation is that some police units may not be applying the model appropriately as they may claim (CEBCP, 2013).
The chosen current event
The current police brutality, especially on black communities, is a strong evidence of the truth in the theory discussed above. In particular, the Eric Garner case poses a strong relevance in this context. He was shot dead by police when they were trying to arrest him for peddling illegal cigarettes. Mr. Garner was irritated by police harassment and concluded that this disturbance was because he was black. He mentioned as much before he was killed by the officer attached to NYPD. Another incident is that of…
References
CEBCP. (2013). Broken Windows Policing. Retrieved from Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy: http://cebcp.org/evidence-based-policing/what-works-in-policing/research-evidence-review/broken-windows-policing/
Foster, D. (2015, August 15). 'Guaranteed Conflict Theory' As An Explanation For Why The Police Keep Killing Black People. Retrieved from Politicus USA: http://www.politicususa.com/2014/08/15/guaranteed-conflict-theory-explanation-police-killing-black-people.htmlx
Kelling, G. L., & Coles, C. M. (1998). Fixing Broken Windows: Restoring Order And Reducing Crime In Our Communities . Free Press.
Kelling, G. L., & Wilson, J. Q. (1982). Broken Windows: The police and neighborhood safety. The Atlantic.
(Braga, et. al, 1999). However, the problem is that the study did not directly examine the broken windows theory. While the police present in the study did engage in some of the social order restoration that is characteristic of broken windows policing, they also engaged in overt acts to reduce violent crime, such as removing weapons stashed by local drug dealers. (Braga, et. al, 1999). Obviously, reducing the likelihood
Broken Windows Perspective The world is a scary place. Many of us live in urban areas, where crime rates are reaching all time highs. Yet, still our phobias over crime may tend to be exaggerated. Still, it is clear through the broken windows perspective that allowing the physical space of neighborhoods to decay also results in the increase of crimes in the area; therefore, helping initiate cleaner streets helps hinder crimes,
Broken Window Theory The "broken windows" theory of crime prevention and control is perhaps one of the most widely discussed and least understood law enforcement paradigms, due to the relative simplicity of the theory and the ostensibly dramatic reductions in crime offered by the first studies of cities in which a "broken windows" policy was implemented. The policy was first proposed in the early 1980s, but it was not until the
Broken Windows, Damaged Gutters, and Police Supervision One of the primary obstacles that police reformers face when implementing a community policing philosophy is that it requires that officers, supervisors and communities work together in a 'team' oriented manner to accomplish the tasks at hand. As pointed out in the case study, Sergeant Strzykalski was at first very reluctant to participate in the community policing program in part because his work
Criminology The essence of broken windows theory is that "if a neighborhood or city doesn't fix its broken windows and graffiti, the environment will continue to descend into crime, chaos and violence," (Thompson, 2012). Environmental variables have an impact on crime rates, which is why it is important to pay attention to the foreclosure phenomenon and the phenomenal rate at which foreclosures are happening in certain neighborhoods. A vicious cycle can
Social and Cultural Differences As The Economist (2008) reports, the idea that graffiti and litter can lead to more crime is an old one that was first put forward in the 1980s. The Broken Windows theory of Wilson and Kelling (1982) argued that neighborhoods that are not taken care of physically and that let acts of vandalism go on without cleaning them up or that suffer from too many abandoned buildings