by Fiona Nicholson, Science Writer

In the 80s and early 90s, crime in major US cities like New York was at an all-time high. Crimes ranged from highharm violence, murder, rape and robbery to the aggressive ‘pan-handling’ or begging, including on-street car washers who harassed motorists as they stopped at traffic lights and junctions. With the confrontational approach to policing, law and order, which focussed on high harm violent crime, whole neighbourhoods had broken down into no-go areas, where even the police feared to tread.

During this period, a whole new theory of social order and crime was developed by the American social scientist, the late James Quinn Wilson and US criminologist, George Kelling. They called it ‘Broken Window’ theory. By using broken windows as a metaphor for disorder in a neighbourhood, they proposed that even a small occurrence of disorder in a community, like a broken window left unrepaired, would promote a rise in disorder and incivility in the community, leading eventually to serious crime. They suggested that there are two types of disorder, one being the state of disrepair and neglect typified by broken windows, vacant buildings, litter and abandoned cars. The second type is social disorder – aggressive begging, noisy neighbours, gangs of youths congregating in the streets and similar antisocial, anxiety-provoking behaviours.