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Theories Of Broken Windows Theory

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In the early 1990’s New York City implemented a new method of policing called the “Broken Windows” theory. At that time William Bratton was the new commissioner of the New York City Police Department and he wanted to center his attention to the subways. Using this theory to help with policing meant that more serious crimes would evolve from the minor infractions. Bratton was basically causing a war with the fare evasion and the homeless in the subway tunnels. He was authorizing sweeps to make sure that the subway tunnels were safe for citizens. This was all stemmed from the broken windows theory that was introduced in an article from the 1982 Atlantic Monthly written by James Q. Wilson and George Kelling. (Maskaly & Boggess, 2014).
According to Wilson and Kelling they stated the broken windows theory is as if the first broken window in a building is not repaired, the people who like breaking windows will assume that no one cares about the building and more windows will be broken. Soon the building will have no windows (Wilson and Kelling, 1982). Using this theory, New York City Police department thought that if some rude remarks by the youths that were loitering were left unchallenged the youths would believe that no one cares what they did and that their behaviors would escalate into something more serious. In other words, they were trying to stop any minor problems before they became worse. From the results of this a policy known as “zero tolerance” came to light, even

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