Essay On Broken Windows Theory

The Broken windows theory is a theory that was introduced by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling in 1982 and stated that the condition of a setting or environment is conducive to that of its crime rate. For example, such environments such as slums and projects are subjected to higher crime rates theoretically because they have deplorable infrastructure and already visible post-crime distress. That being said; any place with qualities such as good infrastructure and an absence of distress will have adversely lower crime rates. Based on the theory, the reason for these conditions to continue as they are without repair is solely because the people who live there continue to misuse the property that exists in that area. The theory states that in order to solve the problem of crime, the environment must be repaired and maintained in order to …show more content…
Kelling. Kelling was hired by the New York Transit authority as a consultant in the late 80’s to early 90’s to help eradicate the severe graffiti problem that plagued the subways of New York. Kelling figured that if he applied his theory to New York's graffiti problem and had success, his thesis would be that much more closer to being right. To combat the problem Kelling implemented routine cleanings of the train cars; he had each train car cleaned every 24 hours. The train cars were scheduled to be cleaned every morning, that way when each train car retired for the day they would be readily clean and useable before the before they would be used again. It took several days of routine clean-up before Kelling’s plan began to show visible results.With the combined efforts of the stricter policing strategies put in place by the NYPD and the new cleaning system imposed by Kelling, within weeks the graffiti gradually disappeared, and ultimately stopped in the subway