The two policing approaches have elicited public debate on which one is the most suitable to control or prevent crime in the community. The community members are key partners in crime prevention rather than the use of order-maintenance policing propagated by the Broken Windows Theory. In the 1980s, there was the rise of two policing approaches, namely the Community-based policing approach (CP) and the Broken Windows Theory (BW) that were conceptually related but functionally apart (McKee & Lewis, 2016). They are different in practice, but they both concur that the police should be actively engaged with the community to minimize major crimes. Social scientists George Kelling and James Wilson introduced the BW theory in a 1982 article and was
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According to social science studies, when a group of people feels that they are unfairly targeted, they develop negative attitudes towards a common course that is being popularized. It instills fear and not collaboration, hence the need for law enforcement to work in partnership with the community. The practices that the BW theory uses, such as imposing fines for minor offenses only burden an impoverished community (McKee & Lewis, 2016). What happens later is the fracture of the relationship between the police and the community …show more content…
There is no way residents can leak information to a police force that they do not trust concerning the members of a gang and their illegal activities. Crime reports reveal some cops are secret members of the gangs hence they protect their illegal acts. It becomes tough for residents to share for fear of victimizations. If only the police could partner with the locals and assure them of witness protection, then they will reveal more than they anticipated about the under dealings of the criminals. Through CP, there is trust established not only with the individual members of the community, but also other government agencies and neighborhood groups (Koch, 2012). The BW tactic is more of police-centered than people-centered. That discredits it from the public popularity since the police are preoccupied with witch-hunting for lesser crimes than striving on how to unearth the root causes of more serious
According to social science studies, when a group of people feels that they are unfairly targeted, they develop negative attitudes towards a common course that is being popularized. It instills fear and not collaboration, hence the need for law enforcement to work in partnership with the community. The practices that the BW theory uses, such as imposing fines for minor offenses only burden an impoverished community (McKee & Lewis, 2016). What happens later is the fracture of the relationship between the police and the community …show more content…
There is no way residents can leak information to a police force that they do not trust concerning the members of a gang and their illegal activities. Crime reports reveal some cops are secret members of the gangs hence they protect their illegal acts. It becomes tough for residents to share for fear of victimizations. If only the police could partner with the locals and assure them of witness protection, then they will reveal more than they anticipated about the under dealings of the criminals. Through CP, there is trust established not only with the individual members of the community, but also other government agencies and neighborhood groups (Koch, 2012). The BW tactic is more of police-centered than people-centered. That discredits it from the public popularity since the police are preoccupied with witch-hunting for lesser crimes than striving on how to unearth the root causes of more serious