NCJ Number
204726
Journal
Criminal Justice Ethics Volume: 22 Issue: 2 Dated: Summer/Fall 2003 Pages: 54-66
Date Published
2003
Length
13 pages
Annotation
The books and articles reviewed in this article attack the "broken windows" theory and its associated practices, and they question the common conception of "order."
Abstract
The "broken windows" theory holds that the enforcement of laws that pertain to public order and observable conditions related to order will prevent major crimes in a community. The publications reviewed are "Illusion of Order" by Bernard Harcourts, "The Culture of Control" by David Garland, a collection of essays by Andrea McArdle and Tanya Erzen, and the "Urban Outcasts" by Loic Wacquant and Phillipe Bourgois. The works reviewed in this paper are noted to emphasize the fact that "order" is socially constructed, which the reviewer accepts as a truism. The critical issues identified and discussed in this review are the kind of order that currently prevails and what kind of order should prevail. Regarding the characteristics of the current order, the reviewer argues that the works reviewed lack reliable data and the necessary social and historical contexts, which has made their reasoning vulnerable to vague, abstract, and often false assumptions. This, the reviewer believes, is due to ideological reasoning instead of empirical analysis. When addressing the issue of what kind of order should prevail, the reviewer argues that the reviewed publications fail to consider the harms caused by expanded conceptions of freedom and reduced restraints on public behavior and acceptable community conditions. Also, when touting the decentralization of the regulation of public order, the reviewer argues that the publications fail to identify new harms caused by new social arrangements and to consider why they might be more acceptable than the harms under the old order. The reviewer supports zero-tolerance policing as a means of making the public streets inhospitable to the antisocial elements of society. Such a strategy makes clear to all residents that violations of community requirements for self-discipline and respect for the rights of others will not be tolerated. 16 notes