Broken Windows and Power of Context

There is what is called Broken Windows theory. The argument is that crime is the inevitable result of disorder. If a window is broken and left unrepaired, people walking by will conclude that no one cares and no one is in charge. Soon, more windows will be broken, and the sense of anarchy will spread from the building to the street on which it faces, sending a signal that anything goes. Broken windows are invitations to more serious crimes.

 

Muggers and robbers, whether opportunistic or professional, believe they reduce their chances of being caught or even identified if they operate on streets where potential victims are already intimidated by prevailing conditions. If the neighborhood cannot keep a bothersome panhandler from annoying passersby, the thief may reason, it is even less likely to call the police to identify a potential mugger or to interfere if the mugging actually takes place.

 

This is an epidemic theory of crime. It says that crime is contagious---just as a fashion trend is contagious---that it can start with a broken window and spread to an entire community. The impetus to engage in a certain kind of behavior is not coming from a certain kind or person but from a feature of the environment.

 

In New York City removing graffiti from the subway system resulted in a lowering of the crime rate.

 

The graffiti cleanup took six to seven years. At that time the second phase of the subway cleanup began. They began to crack down on fare-beating/ Why? Because it was believed that like graffiti, fare-beating could be a signal, a small expression of disorder that invited much more serious crimes. An estimated 170,000 people a day were entering the system without paying a token. Once one or two or three cheat the system other people --- who might never otherwise have considered evading the law --- would join in, reasoning that if some people weren't going to pay, they shouldn't either, and the problem would snowball.  Because there was only $1.25 at stake, the transit police didn't feel it was worth their time to pursue it, particularly when there were plenty of more serious crimes happening down on the platform and in the trains.

 

Fare-beaters would be nabbed one by one, handcuffed and left them standing in a daisy chain on the platform until they had a "full-catch." The idea was to signal, as publicly as possible that the transit police were now serious about cracking down of fare-beaters. A check was done on all arrested. One out of seven arrestees had an outstanding warrant for a previous crime and one out of twenty was carrying a weapon of some sort. After a while the bad guys left their weapons home and paid the fare.