Janibell Perez Professor Mark Criminal Justice Systems and the Community Broken Windows Critique This critique is based on the “Broken Windows” The policy and neighborhood safety by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling. After reading this article I have come to the conclusion that the authors overall purpose and meaning was to show how disorder is capable of sustaining and generating serious crimes in a neighborhood. The authors James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling want to let the reader know that disorder is not the main factor of crime itself. When there is disorder in a neighborhood the residents seem to withdraw to their houses and participate less in the community, because of this crime starts to happen when residents don’t participate in the area. The overall purpose and meaning of this article is to send the message that police officers can play a unique part in disrupting the disorder process.
The concept of ‘broken windows’ is appealing to police departments attempting to reduce crime and restore order in their communities. From a police perspective, not only can order maintenance assist in meeting citizen demands for a government response to disorderly conditions, but it can also help in potentially deterring more serious crime from occurring. Several studies have found an association between order maintenance policing and crime reduction. Corman and Mocan (2002) determined that minor offense enforcement was linked to the reduction in serious crime in New York City.
So the broken windows create a snowball effect of vandalism, which could cause the surrounding homes and buildings to be subject to such vandalism as well. Kelling and Wilson believed that crime is a direct result of disorder, and if disorder were eliminated, then serious crime would cease as well. A community full of disorder creates a sense of fear. That fear causes people to withdraw from the community causing a weakening of social controls Neighborhoods become vulnerable, allowing criminals to continue to commit serious crimes. This cycle will keep going unless there is action taken to improve the quality of run-down communities.
This “broken windows” policy eventually fueled the community policing movements, and also the evolution of community prosecution, community courts, and community probation and parole. ( Walker and Katz 317-317) In 1982, Kelling and Wilson published an article titled “ Broken Windows” in the Atlantic Monthly magazine. This article definitely popularized the idea that neighborhoods that neglected minor signs of decay and disorder were welcoming more serious crime into their neighborhood. According to Wilson and Kelling, “ a broken window left unintended is a sign that nobody cares, and invites more broken windows, so disorderly behavior leads to fear of crime, more serious crime, and ultimately, urban decay.” So, to sum it up, one broken window plus one more broken window, will equal the whole building with broken windows. This “ Broken Windows” article has been reproduced more than any other article in Atlantic’s history.
Eventually from neglecting that issue one broken window then evolves into numerous other broken windows. This disorder is then left unattended which will clearly suggest that no one cares about the problem. From that point the degenerates of the streets become attracted to that particular area and this invites further disorder and more serious crimes to appear. Policing in neighborhoods should be based on an understanding of the connection between order maintenance and crime prevention. This implies that if disorderly behaviors in public places such as petty vandalism, begging, vagrancy, prostitution, drug dealing, loitering and murder are regulated then a significant drop in serious crime will follow.
The criminal justice system ensures that everyone that commits a crime is punished as a result of the crime they commit. The prison system (incapacitation) was initially developed to keep offenders off the streets thus preventing them from committing crimes in the community resulting in the reduction of crime rates. Capital punishment is also part of the prison system were it is carried out but, in society not everyone feels that criminals should receive the death penalty for a murder they committed. People also believe that capital punishment does not in any way deter future murders committed by other criminals. According to the article “The Death Penalty Does Not Deter Murder,” Hentoff says, “statistics [show] that the murder rate in states with the death penalty is higher than the murder rate in states without capital punishment.” (2004) On the other hand in the article “The Death Penalty Deters Murder,” the author says, “by removing a
A "profile" is a coherent set of facts - known conditions and observable behavior that indicate a particular individual may be engaged in criminal activity. The technique of "profiling" is a well-known and long-standing law enforcement tactic. In fact racial profiling can make us less safe. Multiple studies have shown that when police focus on factors such as race, they tend to pay less attention to actual criminal behavior. This is a dangerous trend that can inhibit effective law enforcement and ultimately endanger the lives of all persons who depend on law enforcement for protection.
Community policing is a type of policing that has the polcing woking with members of the community and having the community taking a more active role in crime contro and pervention. Community policing also differs from the traditional type of policing because instead of the traditional method of crime control the community oriented policing seek out to install a fear of crime, order mantence, and conflict resolution as their methods of policing. The idea that stems from this is that you will have members of the police force focusing on major crime while the community will take care of the smaller ones. Then the therory that if you stop the minor crimes from occuring could possibly lead to a decrease in major crimes comes into play, and that would be one of the benefits to having community policing. Community partnerships is another method used by police in order to ensure a good relationship with members of the general public.
Essentially, the police will base their use of assets in a manner to reduce crime by building ties within the community and having a presence in neighborhoods. This can be an effective method because many argue that seeing the police in an area a majority of the time deters criminals from acting in those areas. A downfall of the COP theory is that political influence can force a department to pool resources in an area where crime is not as prevalent in order to keep good relations with a major tax base. Often times the poorer neighborhoods do not feel as though they are receiving enough of a police presence. The contingency theory is based on the approach to achieve specific goals, such as crime control.
Tommy Ly 10/13/11 Module Six Class Debate Community Oriented Policing (COP) versus Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) Community-Oriented Policing Community-Oriented Policing grew out of public dissatisfaction with police forces that were perceived as “occupying armies” rather than public servants—and with police concerns about increasing calls for service. The idea behind COP is that if police departments can work with other agencies and community groups to address underlying problems, the quality of life for citizens will improve, and police calls for service will decline. Policing under the COP model is multi-dimensional and proactive, depending heavily on officers' abilities to took at situations from a “big-picture” perspective and to problem-solve creatively. The COP approach means that officers use a range of skills: social work, negotiation, grass-roots organizing, planning, and others. Citizens get to know officers as human beings, not just “robo-cops” in blue.