Broken Windows Policing' - the Emphasis on Crime Fighting or Order Maintenance
According to Gua broken windows theory and policing strategies based on it predict that citizens' perceptions of disorder in their communities cause fear and social withdrawal, which thereby opens the streets for serious predatory crime. 'Broken windows' refers to the hypothesis that low-level offenses (vandalism and panhandling) create an environment that breeds bigger crimes.
Weisburd et al., stated that broken windows identifies two kinds of transition, one bad and one good. Unrepaired broken windows embody the bad kind, a slide from order to disorder. In the most recent policing models, police tactics, resources and attention are redirected toward removal of visible signs of social disorder by using police resources both for vigorous enforcement of laws on minor 'quality of life' offenses, while aggressively interdicting citizens in a widespread search for weapons.
Furthermore, the new approach to urban planning and development was called gentrification. Gentrification is the process of renovating and improving a residence or district so that it conforms to middle-class taste. The broken windows theory is a criminological concept that states that witnessing indicators of crime, anti-social conduct, and civil dysfunction create a city setting which promotes further crime and chaos, along with serious offences.
The idea implies that law enforcement tactics that focus on minor offences, such as vandalism, loitering, public intoxication, jaywalking and tax evasion, aid to establish an environment of order and lawfulness, thus impeding any serious criminal offences. In 1993 NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani put this theory into practice. In 1997, the New York Times reported that: “The crime rate in New York City fell 9.1 percent last year, with murders dropping to their lowest level since 1967”. “The murder total was 767 that year, a 60 percent decline from 1993. It was miraculous, but even that would soon be seen as far too high. Giuliani and his successor, Michael Bloomberg, kept the pressure on, as did their commissioners. In Bloomberg’s final year, 2013, the city, with a population of 8.5 million, had 333 murders”.
In conclusion, tactically, policing in this era had several faces, from frequent arrests for low-level crimes such as public drinking, graffiti and, marijuana possession, to aggressive street-level interdictions and searches of citizens whose behaviors signaled their potential for crime, but most notably carrying weapons. Aggressive stop and frisk tactics is a form of broken windows policing, by keeping weapons and low level offenders off the streets, the rate of violent crime will decrease. The theory being that low level incidents will eventually lead to more violent acts of crime.
