ADJUS-121 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Bernard Harcourt, Misdemeanor, Manhattan Institute For Policy Research
26 Aug 2020
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Broken windows policing: fear of crime, "order maintenance" function. When people are present on the street, the presence of people reduces criminal activity. When you see signs of neglect, there is a a higher likelihood that things will be vandalized and no one will care. People will refrain from using the streets. The unchecked panhandler is, in effect, the first broken window. The essence of the police role in maintaining order is to reinforce the informal control mechanisms of the community itself. This wish to "decriminalize" disreputable behavior that "harms no one" and thus remove the ultimate sanction the police can employ to maintain neighborhood order is, we think, a mistake. Stomp out litter campaign (department of sanitation ) But unfortunately, the most reliable social scientific evidence suggests that the theory is wrong. A number of studies one of which was: Kelling and his co authors analyzed data for of each of the 75 precincts in nyc (2001).
