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Conclusion on broken window theory in the social world
Conclusion on broken window theory in the social world
Social factors contributing to crime
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The broken windows theory argues that if one broken window is not repaired, then a domino effect will follow and gradually more windows will be broken. This theory is argued by Wilson and Kelling, and they say that if a window is left broken, then no one really cares about the community, so more and more windows will continuously break without punishment. The main argument of this theory is that if a community is fully of crime, and they do not do anything about it, then crime will continuously happen. Shaw and McKay’s social disorganization can be connected to the broken windows theory. The main argument of the social disorganization theory is that a poor sense of community and weak social controls cause crime. So if you live in a bad neighborhood
with very low protection, it is more likely to have crime. Many key concepts can be related to these theories. A key concept to look at is concentric circles. Concentric circles are urban land spatially arranged in a series of rings. This shows where the low police control and high crime communities are located in different areas. Another key concept is ecology. Ecology is the study of the relationship between organisms and their environment. We study people in the community we live in to understand why people commit crime. This study shows that when there is no effort in stopping crime, then crime will just continue to happen without any controls. Collective Efficacy also can be connected to the broken windows theory. Collective Efficacy’s main argument by Sampson is physical and social vicinity influence community’s social network systems and can create situation conductive to crime and delinquency. The collective efficacy theory primarily focuses on social controls in the community. Informal social controls are exercised by peer and community pressure. People like coaches, parents, and teachers are informal controls. Informal social controls can be just as important as formal social controls. Formal social controls are police officers or anyone with the law. Many people find someone to look up to. These are the people that usually lead you in the right direction. These people keep off the streets and under their wing. This leads to collective supervision. Collective supervision is the operation of maintaining public order. Once the community sees the importance of keeping their “environment” and work together as the “organisms” living there then they’ll have much greater success at keeping their streets free of crime.
Two major sociological theories explain youth crime at the macro level. The first is Social Disorganization theory, created in 1969 by Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay. The theory resulted from a study of juvenile delinquency in Chicago using information from 1900 to 1940, which attempts to answer the question of how aspects of the structure of a community contribute to social control. The study found that a community that is unable to achieve common values has a high rate of delinquency. Shaw and McKay looked at the physical appearance of the neighborhoods, the average income of the population, the ethnicity of the neighborhood, the percent of renters versus owners, and how fast the population of the area changed. These factors all contribute to neighborhood delinquency.
Alex Kotowits’ book, There Are No Children Here, follows two young boys over a course of two years. The environment that the children are raised in is a lower income area that is surrounded by violence, gangs, and crime. The best theory to explain this novel would be strain theory, followed by social disorganization theory. Being raised in poverty generates many issues, which then makes children rebel later in life. Many families experience different types of strain such as experience strain, vicarious strain, and anticipated strain. This not only affects the person who is experiencing strain, but also affects other people who are around them. The novel presents a good example of both general strain theory and early social disorganization theory
The broken windows theory, was proposed by James Q. Wilson and George Kelling (1982). This used broken windows to describe disorder within neighbourhoods.Their theory links disorder and unsociable behavior within a community leading to serious crime. Prior to theories such as broken windows, law enforcement and police tended to focus on the serious crime. However, Wilson and Kelling took a different view from this. They saw serious crime as the final result of a chain of events, which emerged from disorder. If we eliminated disorder, then serious crimes would not occur as mentioned by Mckee
The Broken Windows theory helps to accomplish many important objectives that all government agencies in America deem essential; increasing the quality of life for citizens, helping to prevent future crimes from occurring, as well as promote a positive relationship between the police and the citizens they protect. Of course this idea isn’t flawless, but does provide solutions for the problems mentioned. The implementation of this theory will reduce crime, but more importantly increase the feeling of safety for citizens. By keeping community disorder and minor crimes in check, communities look more orderly and foster community pride. Of course people think the biggest job of the police force is to fight major crime, but in reality, they can accomplish just as much by community policing and enforcing minor incivilities more strictly.
During the late 1800s and early 1900s, northern cities such as Chicago were experiencing social problems because of population booms caused by “waves of immigrants, displaced farm workers, and blacks fleeing the rural south” (Gabbidon, 2010). By the 1920s the University of Chicago had put together a group of scholars to investigate the social ills plaguing the city. Together, these scholars combined their ideas to formulate what is now known as the “Chicago School” (Gabbidon, 2010).
In conclusion, both strain/anomie and social disorganization theories are both very important theories in explaining the causation of crime and deviance. Many theorists today often rely heavily on these theories. As crime and society continue to change, these theories will continue to provide a solid foundation for future theories created.
Look back to the 1800s, Sir Robert Peel had his nine policing Principles. There are many similar aspects of broken windows derived out of community policing that can be applied to the philosophy of the Peels Principles. The first principle was to prevent crime and disorder. “1. To prevent crime and disorder, as an alternative to their repression by military force and severity of legal punishment.” In the broken windows theory disorder or maintaining order was a key factor “(Champion, 2001). Although, foot patrol, in one of the experiments in the broken windows theory, had not direct effect on crime, it reduced citizen’s fear of crime. Thus, portraying a sense of safety. When residents feel safe they go out on into the street presenting the idea that people
According to Cullen and Agnew (2011) the Social Disorganization theory was developed in the mid 1940’s by Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay while they were researchers studying at the Institute for Social Research in Chicago. Shaw and McKay (1942) based their research of the study of crime in Chicago off of the work that Ernest Burgess theorized in how urban areas grow through a process of continual expansion from their inner core toward outlying areas. According to Cullen and Agnew (20011) one of the primary arguments in the social disorganization theory is the idea that there are settlement patterns in the development of cities, and how these patterns impact neighborhood characteristics and corresponding crime levels. Shaw and McKay developed a theory based off the settlement pattern research that Ernest Burgess conducted. According to Cullen and Agnew (2011) Ernest Burgess stated ...
Theorists believe that Shaw and McKay were biased when they wrote their conclusion on the lower-class neighborhood. This in turn resulted in other critics questioning if the demographics such as socio-economic, the setting of the communities and the population that composed the communities were indicators of social disorganization or if social theorists constitute their reasoning based on their own beliefs. According to Kurbin (2010), Criminologist Edwin Sutherland preferred to call Shaw and McKay’s social disorganization theory the differential social organization because of his belief that “the organization of the delinquent group, which is often very complex, is social disorganization only from an ethical or some other particularistic point of view.” This may be interpreted as him stating that a social group, such as a delinquent one, is only perceived as “disorganized” based on personal biases. According to Sutherland, some urban neighborhoods are not disorganized but organized based on the daily needs of the unique community. For example, if an outsider born and raised in a community with different set of values looks into a community with another perspective on how to function in a social environment, the outsider may think that they are wrong and ridiculous for living in such a matter. The outsider
There are many studies that point out some risk factors that could be responsible for criminality, but it would not be appropriate to say that is specifically poverty or the current economy. This field of study is uncertain about affirming this kind of assumption. But all this discussion about Broken Windows Theory leads us to reflect why not try to prevent crime instead of act after the crime has been committed?
Therefore, the community has informal social control, or the connection between social organization and crime. Some of the helpful factors to a community can be informal surveillance, movement-governing rules, and direct intervention. They also contain unity, structure, and integration. All of these qualities are proven to improve crime rate. Socially disorganized communities lack those qualities. According to our lecture, “characteristics such as poverty, residential mobility, and racial/ethnic heterogeneity contribute to social disorganization.” A major example would be when a community has weak social ties. This can be caused from a lack of resources needed to help others, such as single-parent families or poor families. These weak social ties cause social disorganization, which then leads higher levels of crime. According to Seigel, Social disorganization theory concentrates on the circumstances in the inner city that affect crimes. These circumstances include the deterioration of the neighborhoods, the lack of social control, gangs and other groups who violate the law, and the opposing social values within these neighborhoods (Siegel,
Introduced in 1982 by George Kelling and James Wilson , the broken windows theory, is a concept of civil disorder signaling effect on anti-social behavior and crime tendencies (Kelling and Wilson, 1982). The theory outlines that monitoring urban settings can prevent more serious behavior from taking place. Since the beginning of the early 1980s, the theory has been subject to lengthy discourse within the social sciences as well as in the public realm (Sampson & Raudenbush, 1999). Notably, broken windows theory has been effective as a motivating tool for several reform programs to determine criminal policy. From this position, it is useful to explain the relationship between community order and crime through the theoretical lens of the broken windows theory.
This theory however as some have argued has emerged from social disorganisation theory, which sees the causes of crime as a matter of macro level disadvantage. Macro level disadvantage are the following: low socioeconomic status, ethnic or racial heterogeneity, these things they believe are the reasons for crime due to the knock on effect these factors have on the community network and schools. Consequently, if th...
Over the decades, law enforcement agencies have worked tirelessly to fight crime and keep the public safe. In order to achieve these goals, they have enforced certain policing tactics. In his book, The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell mentions and explains in depth about the policing strategy known as Broken Windows Policing. This method of policing is derived from the Broken Windows Theory which states that if there is a broken window and no one bothers to fix it, then people will have a mindset that no one is in charge thus resulting in more windows being broken. The Broken Windows Theory regards crime as a result of disorder. In other words, when people see disorder present in the environment, they will be liable to commit more crimes with
The Broken Windows Theory is just one of the strategies we use today in modern policing. The theory was created by James Q. Wilson in 1982. The theory states that if