NCJ Number
168103
Date Published
1997
Length
0 pages
Annotation
This video lecture advocates police-community cooperation in defining public behaviors acceptable to the community and in implementing policies that will promote such behaviors and discourage unacceptable public behavior.
Abstract
George Kelling, who (along with James Q. Wilson) is associated with the "broken windows" strategy of community crime control, explains the intent and dynamics of this strategy. He counters the critics who claim that such a strategy involves the police occupying a community and imposing their will on the public behaviors of the residents. He also addresses the critics who claim that crime can only be controlled with the institutionalization of major social and economic changes that radically reform the community environments in which people live. He points to New York City as an example of how public behaviors have changed for the better without major socioeconomic changes or citizen dissatisfaction with police. He argues that public behaviors and physical conditions ("broken windows") that become symbols of disorder and fuel the fear of crime can be changed as police and community residents meet together and identify those public behaviors that most disturb and demoralize residents. In such meetings, police and residents can reach a consensus regarding behaviors that will be tolerated and those that will not be tolerated. Instead of becoming an occupying presence, police and citizens cooperate in achieving the common goal of making the community safe and uplifting.