How Broken Windows Saved New York from Crime
By the end of the 1970s, crime in New York City was appalling. Pedestrians were mugged right on Broadway. Tourists were especially targeted, with their cameras and wallets shamelessly taken. The police strongly advised residents to carry a $20 bill in their outer jacket pocket to hand over immediately to muggers. That was the price of a few doses of heroin at the time. Up to 2,000 serious crimes and up to 10 murders occurred daily in the metropolis. Only the insane dared to venture out at night.
Riding the subway was dangerous. Gangs of youths would storm into the train cars, robbing passengers of their money and valuables even in broad daylight with crowds around. The subway was a terrifying sight. Trash littered the platforms, half the lights didn't work, casting the underground into semi-darkness. The walls were covered in graffiti, mostly vulgar drawings and writings.
One witness to this nightmare recalled, "I entered the subway, stood in line for a token, and then approached the turnstile only to find the coin slot broken. Two ominous-looking men stood nearby. They had broken the turnstile and demanded passengers to give them tokens. No one wanted to deal with these criminals, and the tokens disappeared into their tattooed hands. But most people just bypassed the brazen pair and entered the subway for free. It felt like hell. It seemed like the state was crumbling."
And then, a miracle happened. In 1985, crime reached its peak in New York City, and then suddenly plummeted. Over the next 7 years, the number of murders decreased by 70%. Robberies, assaults, and rapes dropped by 50%. By 1995, New York had become one of the safest cities in the United States. For some inexplicable reason, thousands of deviants and psychos suddenly stopped breaking the law. The streets and subways became quiet and peaceful.
What caused this striking transformation? Why did the same people start behaving completely differently? The answer is simple. There was no miracle. The reason behind it all was the Broken Windows Theory.
This lifesaving panacea from all criminal woes was conceived and developed in 1982 by American political scientist James Wilson and sociologist George Kelling. Since then, there have been numerous discussions surrounding the brainchild of these scientists. Experts have been debating for over 30 years, and in the meantime, "broken windows" have proven themselves in practice. They kickstarted radical reforms in the criminal policies of many countries.
So, what is the essence of these very windows, and why are they broken? This is directly related to the assertion that crime and order have a directly proportional relationship. Imagine a building with one broken window. People pass by, see the window, and get the impression that there is complete anarchy in that building. Sooner or later, someone else will break another window, and the building will be adorned with empty window frames all around its perimeter. All of this fosters a sense of impunity, spreading like a contagion down the street and eventually throughout the neighborhood, signaling to more serious and dangerous crimes.
This example indicates that people don't break the law because they are poorly educated; their inherent nature leaves much to be desired. Breaking the law is a direct consequence of the order that exists in the surrounding world. If there's chaos around, it breeds criminals. So, the atmosphere surrounding individuals drives them toward unlawful actions.
This assertion by American sociologists was decided to be put to the test in practice by experts from the Netherlands. They conducted several simple experiments. Let's consider one of them.
Near a large store, there was a bicycle parking lot along the wall. The asphalt was perfectly clean, and the wall was pleasing to the eye with its whiteness. Experimenters removed all the trash cans and hung advertising brochures for a fictional sports store on the bikes. Seated nearby in a car, they watched the actions of the owners of the two-wheeled mechanisms.
A person approached a bicycle, removed the advertisement from the handlebars, and looked around for a trash can. But there was nowhere to throw away the unwanted paper. Each person had three options: throw the bright paper on the ground, hang it on the handlebars of another bike, or put it in their pocket to throw away in the nearest trash can later. Thirty-three percent of all cyclists threw the ad on the ground.
The experiment was repeated, but with a slightly different interpretation. Several cigarette butts and crumpled candy wrappers were thrown on the ground, and the wall was painted with abstract drawings. This time, 72% of cyclists threw the unwanted advertisement on the ground.
But let's return to New York in the early 1980s, when it was struck by terrible crime. In 1985, David Gunn became the director of the city's transit system. He inherited a hellish mess. And what did the new director start his tenure with? He waged a relentless war on graffiti. At first, this didn't garner much enthusiasm among taxpayers. The subway had a slew of problems: technical issues, fire safety concerns, and, of course, crime.
People began to insinuate to the director that he was not doing what he should. But he responded, "The drawings on the walls and trains symbolize the collapse of the system. First and foremost, we must defeat graffiti, and only then start operating trains worth tens of millions of dollars. If we can't protect them from vandalism, they'll be defaced immediately."
David Gunn ordered the train cars to be cleaned up. Every car, every day. Special points were established at the end of the routes. As soon as a graffiti-covered car arrived there, everything was immediately washed off, and the scratches were painted over. Seats slashed with knives and broken lights were replaced. Large crews of people worked around the clock at these points. But with each passing day, the trains became cleaner and better. It didn't take long before cases of vandalism became rare. They became extremely rare.
In 1986, William Bratton became the chief of the New York City Transit Police. But instead of increasing the percentage of solved murders and serious crimes, he ordered to deal with fare evaders in the subway.
To journalists' questions, he replied that the more "hare-jumpers," the less order. And this creates conditions for more serious offenses. At that time, 200,000 fare evaders were riding the subway every day. Young men would leap over the turnstiles and run to catch the trains. Others watched and stopped paying too. And indeed, if someone doesn't pay, why should I? The number of fare evaders increased daily, and the problem started spiraling out of control.
So, what did the police chief do? He stationed officers in plainclothes by the turnstiles. They started catching fare evaders, handcuffing them, and lining them up on the platform. Then they were put on buses and taken to police stations. There, they were fingerprinted, checked against databases, and searched. This way, they caught many dangerous criminals who were wanted. But the most important thing was that the bad guys quickly wisened up. They stopped carrying weapons and started paying their fares.
In 1993, the city residents elected a new mayor, Rudolph Giuliani. The Broken Windows Theory appealed to him with its simplicity and effectiveness. He appointed Bratton
