Features
The Broken Window Theory
By Akin Akingbogun
The idea [is] that once disorder begins, it doesn't matter what the neighborhood is, and things can begin to get out of control.
E
ver heard about this funny sounding theory? Me too? At least not until a couple of years ago! It's a criminological theory applied in handling an epidemic of crime. You would then be wondering how this means anything! We will delve into the original hypothesis culminating into the theory and then its application into our normal lives. In 1969, Philip Zimbardo, a psychologist from Stanford University, ran an interesting field study. He abandoned two cars in two very different places: one in a mostly poor, crime-ridden section of New York City, and the other in a fairly affluent neighborhood of Palo Alto, California. Both cars were left without license plates and parked with their hoods up.
“If you take care of the little things, then you can prevent a lot of the big things”
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Lagos Business School
After just 10 minutes, passersby in New York City began vandalizing the car. First they stripped it for parts. Then the random destruction began. Windows were smashed. The car was destroyed. But in Palo Alto, the other car remained untouched for more than a week. Finally, Zimbardo did something unusual: He took a sledgehammer and gave the California car a smash. After that, passersby quickly ripped it apart, just as they'd done in New York. This field study was a simple demonstration of how something that is clearly neglected can quickly become a target for vandals. But it eventually morphed into something far more than that. It became the basis for one of the most influential theories of crime and policing in America: “broken windows.” What is the Broken Window Theory? The Broken Window theory was the brainchild of the criminologists James Q Wilson and George Kelling. They argued 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! In a city, relatively minor problems like graffiti, public disorder, and aggressive panhandling, they write, are all equivalent of broken windows, invitation to more serious crimes. This is an epidemic theory of crime that states that visible signs of crime, antisocial behavior, and civil disorder create an urban environment that encourages further crime and disorder, including serious crimes. It therefore suggests that crime is contagious! The theory reinforces the impression that criminals perceive broken windows and other social disorder as a sign of weak social control; in turn, they assume that crimes committed there are unlikely to be checked. Well, the broken window theory always worked better as an idea than as a description of the real world. The problems with the theory which includes the fact that perceptions of disorder generally have more to do with the racial composition of a neighborhood than with the number of broken windows or the amount of graffiti in the area, are well documented.
