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Broken Windows Theory

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James Q. Wilson was a Shattuck Professor of Government at Harvard. He is the author of Thinking About Crime. George L. Kelling was formerly the director of the evaluation field staff of the Police foundation. Later he became a fellow researcher at the John F. Kennedy School of Government Harvard. These two men developed the “Broken Windows Theory” in 1982. In the mid-1970, the state of New Jersey, the governor decided that he wanted to take a different approach to crime prevention. He decided to take city police officers out of their cars and put them on foot patrol. The police chief of each of the twenty-eight cities thought that this would be a good idea. They all felt that there would be no difference made on the crime rate, if fact they thought that in taking the officers out of their cars they would not be able to respond to the need of the people in an ideal rate of time. Once this was put in to practice for a few months, a study showed that in fact there was not a decrease in crime but an increase. However, the residence of the cities that had foot patrol felt safer that those who lived in cities who did not have foot patrol. However, research showed that both areas were the same in crime rating. Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) is a multi-disciplinary approach to deterring any criminal action by criminals. The strategies of CPTED mainly rely on the ability to change a willing offenders mind about any criminal action. CPTED applies the Broken Windows Theory by changing small things to make the people in the area feel safer. In cleaning up the neighborhood by painting the building, putting in new lighting, repairing sidewalks, and having police patrol the area ever so often would help prevent would be criminals. An example of CPTED would be where an old rundown neighborhood is renovated and it makes the residents feel

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