Broken Window Essay

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en The Broken Window Theory: Broken Windows and Crime Dawn Fodor Glendale Community College The Broken Window Theory is the belief or thought that when an abandoned building is left unattended in a neighborhood and it has a broken window that goes un fixed more broken windows will occur along with graffiti and crime. When this happens, the community is left to feel a sense of fear, making them less likely to leave their homes. The communities’ thoughts are that the people in the neighborhood are out to cause crime and create havoc. The Broken Window Theory was developed by George L. Kelling and James Q. Wilson (Timothy Noah). The authors of the Broken Window Theory state that in the 1960’s there was a high sense of fear and disorder. The communities felt they had no direct way to protect themselves and did not or could not move, it was not an option for most people in underlying crime ridden neighborhoods. More and more people started to protect themselves by purchasing guns and knives or other means of defense. Riots and disorder were taking place therefore people focused on these things and more and more of it became prevent. The portion of society that chose not to by weapons would lock themselves in their homes and only leave when absolutely needed. Society became frightened and crime rates tripled. Police stopped doing foot patrol and only responded to crime and 911 calls. Police responded to crime however they did not prevent crime from taking place. Today with more and more crimes happening and people feeling less in control these situations that happened in the 60’s are nevertheless taking place now. Though a great deal has changed from then until now we still find our neighborhoods falling under high crime rates low sight of police officers do foot patrol in order to prevent crime occurring. Foot patrol is called community policing and

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