Criminology The essence of broken windows theory is that "if a neighborhood or city doesn't fix its broken windows and graffiti, the environment will continue to descend into crime, chaos and violence," (Thompson, 2012)
This experiment demonstrated that aggressive policing in violent hot spots does have an impact on reducing violent crime. (Braga, et
In America, there are more than two million people incarcerated each day, and two people per week are put to death. (Garland, 2001)
According to David Harcourt, police efforts need to move from policing disorderly conduct. (Harcourt and Thacher, 2005)
Many of these people were homeless, and actions against them faced legal challenges. (Kelling and Coles, 1998)
As a fact of historical development, the state only gradually laid claim to the power to punish crimes and secure civic order, and the "monopoly" of legitimate violence so often proclaimed on behalf of the state was the sheerest of fictions even in the most advanced countries before the twentieth century. (Simon, 2007)
The judge will come by on a motorcycle and immediately fine adults, while juveniles are detained until a parent can come and get them. (Taylor, 2001)
Essentially, the common thought is that neighborhoods that are well maintained are also proactive in helping law enforcement keep their areas free of crim. A modern example of this is seen in the case of New York, where there was a correlation made between physical image of neighborhoods and concepts about crime (Stevens 2009)
Degraded physical spaces tend to portray a very negative image of the neighborhood. Public fear of crime was increased because of the decay of the physical space around them (Wilson & Kelling 2011)
In a sense, Strain Theory also plays a part in this, because this theory posits that delinquent behavior is the result of a pressurized internal system that, like a volcano, is building and building more and more pressure from the strain of the negative state until it finally erupts in the form of criminal behavior -- which is a kind of lashing out at the rule and law-abiding society around him, which appears to have everything going its way. The offender, according to Strain theory, essentially says to society that nothing is really going its way and demonstrates that by breaking society's rules regarding private property (Agnew, 2008)
This too could have an impact on crime rates and serve to act as a preventive measure. There is also the theory of Social Learning, which has something in common with both Broken Windows Theory and Strain Theory, in that it puts forward the notion that what is seen will be duplicated (Akers, Jennings, 2009)