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Abstract
The broken windows approach is an aggressive crime fighting strategy instituted in New York City in the 1990s, emphasizing mass arrest of perpetrators of major as well as minor offenses. The impact resulted in disproportionate arrest of Black and Hispanic youths in comparison with Caucasians. Critics of broken windows strategy maintain that its success is exaggerated and oversold. They argue that the decline in crime in the city was not a consequence of the strategy, but due to improved economy, declining numbers of teenage males, and the decline in crack cocaine use. The broken windows strategy in fact yielded unintended consequences and other collateral effects because of its negative impact on the racial minorities. Furthermore, it created enormous financial burden on the criminal justice system by diverting limited resources for social programs to punishment and incarceration, thus undermining the traditional police-community emphasis of effective policing. The perceived unfair treatment, harassment, and subjection of African Americans to "stop, frisk, search and arrest" has eroded public trust, compromised citizens' due process rights, and delegitimized the law enforcement in the eyes of vulnerable groups, thus creating an enduring negative perception of the criminal justice system.
Keywords
Broken windows, Community-Oriented Policing, Problem-Oriented Policing, Stop and frisk, Racial profiling, Hot-spots, Order-maintaining policing, Quality of Life policing.
Introduction
The Broken Window theory of policing was popularized by the work of Wilson and Kelling (1982), which argued that when community disorder reaches a critical mass, it creates a more serious problem of crime and urban decay. Using the broken window analogy, the authors hypothesize that broken windows in a community depict signs of instability, decay, high crime rate and lack of order and social control. The consequence of this, they claim, is that the neighborhood attracts unlawful and criminal elements from other communities thereby creating a culture of lawlessness. The main notion of this policing strategy is that minor offenses can make way to more serious crimes if allowed to fester. That is, if minor offenders go unchecked, they may up the ante and indulge in more serious crimes. For example, leaving the front lawn unattended suggests to a potential burglar that the home owners are not home. The same logic will be said of not collecting mail from the...
