Poking Holes in the Theory of ‘Broken Windows’. James Q.Wilson’s influential theory, popularized in a 1982 Atlantic Monthly
article, suggests that a zero-tolerance policy toward “neighborhood disorder” — physical decay and nuisance crime — is an effective way to bring down the overall crime rate. Police Chief William Bratton made a name for himself with his own implementation of this in New York City, and it has been credited for the much-ballyhooed dropping crime statistics of the last decade. But the “broken windows” theory appears to be based on specious reasoning and a dearth of empirical evidence, say critics from sociology, criminology and political science. (Among other things, the basic research design errors of confusing correlation with causation and failing to control for confounding variables play a hand here. ) The NYPD’s “order maintenance” program may be doing as much harm as good. Critics see “broken windows” as ‘a harmful, conservative philosophy masquerading as pragmatic and progressive public policy.’ Chronicle of Higher Education