Broken Window Concept
Gerardo de Lago

Abstract
Modern policing have taken various forms as police chiefs looks for better ways to protect their communities, within all the available policing theories we analyzed the Broken-window concept. This policing process was defined on the 1980’s and applied to city areas where abandoned areas and disorder where obvious and led to crime controlled areas and the corresponding citizens fear to walk their own community streets at night. The theory compares the abandoned areas as parks, bus stops and empty building with an empty house where a first window is broken and if not promptly fixed other windows will be broken and very soon the house will be vandalized, doors broken open and interiors painted with graffiti. When community rules are not clear and follow by all members, a small portion will take advantage and create fear on the citizens. The basic assumption is that unattended behavior will lead to breakdown of community control.

Broken Window Concept
Broken-window concept is part of several different concepts developed to find a applicable strategy to overcome crime on communities, this concept is based on the hypothetic idea of an abandoned building in which someone just broke a window, the theory states that if that initially vandalized window is not promptly fixed another one will be broken and very soon the whole building will be attacked.
During this paper we will discuss the basis of this theory and why the broken-window concept explains the behavior of uncontrolled communities. We will also discuss the basics around implementation and the corresponding police participation.
It is not the final and definitive answer for the security problems on communities around the USA, but it can be used a part of the possible options to regain control of gang controlled areas.

Broken-Window: The Concept
The broken window concept is based on a theory that states that an abandoned building where someone breaks a window will surely be vandalized if that window is not promptly fixed. The reason behind this assumption is that if the window is not fixed, it means that nobody cares about the area so it becomes a matter of taking control, taking advantage of other people goods and at the end have fun destroying other people property.
This behavior was translated to various examples, abandoned cars, empty buildings and even former bus stations where the same result was seen: vandalized property, loss of control and ultimately residents fear for their personal safety.
On the contrary if the window is fixed, if the graffiti is erased, if the yard grass is properly cut there will be a sense of control and ownership and the extra-legal rules of community behavior and interaction will prevail above disorder and fear.

How It Works?
The basis behind the concept in order to make this system work is that the real control of the community is exerted by the community itself, by extra-legal rules like use of open spaces, gathering and noise rules, wandering aliens’ confrontation on the streets and alcohol consumption on open spaces.
Disorder and crime go hand by hand, so “serious street crime will flourish were disorderly behavior goes unchecked” (Kelling, G.L, 1982), in order to avoid this the community have to live by a set of standard created and agreed by the community members. Examples of this so called community rules are the expectation of teenager’s not hearing loud music on street corners or people sleeping on bus stops. These rules are defined by the community, enforced by their members and in extreme cases police is called to control outages.
Is important to understand that if initial vandalism and minor crimes are not controlled immediately they will spring a chain reaction of more serious offenses and crimes with the resulting deterioration of public sense of safety. This can grow to levels where normally law-abiding citizens will get involved in vandalism and robbery.

Consequences
If an abandoned area is not properly intervened criminal invasion can happen, it is not inevitable but very likely to happen. This is most important id todays mobility where vandals and criminals migrate to city areas where committing crime is easier if citizens fear id present and disorder is flagrant. In this case fear becomes part of the citizens daily life s they start living behind closed doors abdicating the streets to the gangs. Sooner or later the area becomes a place where people “live” vs. their home.
Reclaiming the area is possible and need to start with the refurbishing of the open areas, cleaning of street trash and removal of people living on the streets. Creating order is crucial to reclaim the neighborhood. Using police will be needed at this stage until the community itself reestablishes the local rules of interaction. It is important to mention that this reclaiming process cannot be done by the police alone as it would need to allocate a lot of resources.
This process has shown to be easier to establish in smaller towns than in big cities as in smaller communities is much easier to create agreement between neighbors than in cities where mobility and migration are an issue. As summary we could tell that unattended behavior will lead to the breakdown of community control, so this process have to be detected and attacked immediately to perpetuate the results.

Controlling The Outages: Police Intervention
Police role in this process is to control the outages without being unfair to the community diversity, in order to do this the police will need training and supervision to assure that they regulate behavior without focusing on ethnic or racial purity of the area.
Communication with community leaders is a cornerstone process that must be done by police officers in order to reduce their bias against local groups or ethnic differences.

Kelling, G.L., & Wilson, J.Q. (1982, March). Broken Windows. The Atlantic.