The Broken Windows Theory

There is no saying what they will be studying next.

Here are the results of a research as reported in The Economist. The study was conducted byKees Keizer and his colleagues at the University of Groningen.

Some of you might click the link, but many won't. I don't, usually, unless I am given  good reasons why I should.

So here are some:

It seems that during the '80s George Kelling, a former probation officer now working at Rutgers University, coined the “Broken Windows Theory” (read on, this has nothing to do with computers). 

If the area you live in shows some signs of decay, such as broken windows kept unmended, more windows will get broken, and sooner or later some stranger will want to walk through one of those to take a look in. People do what they see others do, and they improve upon it. So if some small rule is violated today, may be it is an open invitation for crime tomorrow. Rudy Giuliani's 'zero tolerance' concept could be an improvement upon broken windows theory.

I don't know why, but no one has bothered to check this theory till now, and now that Keizer and Co. have put this to test we can be sure that where there is litter, there will be crime. To be specific, fifty percent more.

The experiment itself was elegant. They chose two alleys. One was clean and fresh. The other had graffiti in it. In both the alleys they placed bicyles, and in the bicycle some sort of advertisement, there was a large sign prohibiting graffiti but there was no dustbin. They found that when the alley had graffiti, 69% of the riders littered compared with 33% where the walls were clean. In the clean alley you tend to take away the waste paper, it seems.

Another experiment was also conducted. There was a temporary fence that shut out a short cut. The fence had a small opening, and two signs, stating this was no thoroughfare, and that you should not lock your cycles on the fence. Where these signs were obeyed, four cycles parked near the fence, but not locked to it- 27% of the people trespassed. And where the cycles were locked to the fence in violation of the sign, 82% took the short cut!

More amazing than all this is what happened when the researchers showed the money. They placed a Five Euro bill in an envelope (it was visible) thrust half inside a post box. Where the area was well-maintained and in good order, only 13% of the people took the money. But if there was graffiti or litter around, about 25% chose to steal the money.

What all this means is that it takes just one example of disorder to inspire another, of the same kind or one of higher magnitude. So, our police personnel are better employed and will do a more effective job of it if they were made to work at keeping our streets clean, not of criminals, but of graffiti and litter!

All this is astonishing, Kees Keizer and his fellow researchers deserve some prize for their ingenuity.

But what strikes me is that, in a clean and rich atmosphere like the board-rooms and five-star hotels, far worse crimes are planned and executed. Why is that?

I think we need a "Open Windows Theory".