Enough is enough-A Radical New York Approach to Crime

[Sir Irvine P]

Crime today seems to affecting more and more people. Sheffield Forum is dominated by treads on poor youth behaviour, assault, burglary and police ineptitude. The community feels powerless against the criminal, decline seems unstoppable in certain parts of the city. New York in the late 1980's experienced rampant crime rates, which are in no way comparable to Sheffield, they took a radical approch to crime which I believe would work well in Sheffield. The Policy was the Broken Windows Policy. A brief overview of the idea is here:

 

The broken windows theory was first introduced by social scientists James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling, in an article titled "Broken Windows" and which appeared in the March 1982 edition of The Atlantic Monthly.[1] The title comes from the following example:

 

Consider a building with a few broken windows. If the windows are not repaired, the tendency is for vandals to break a few more windows. Eventually, they may even break into the building, and if it's unoccupied, perhaps become squatters or light fires inside.

Or consider a sidewalk. Some litter accumulates. Soon, more litter accumulates. Eventually, people even start leaving bags of trash from take-out restaurants there or breaking into cars.

 

A successful strategy for preventing vandalism, say the book's authors, is to fix the problems when they are small. Repair the broken windows within a short time, say, a day or a week, and the tendency is that vandals are much less likely to break more windows or do further damage. Clean up the sidewalk every day, and the tendency is for litter not to accumulate (or for the rate of littering to be much less). Problems do not escalate and thus respectable residents do not flee a neighborhood.

 

The theory thus makes two major claims: that further petty crime and low-level anti-social behavior will be deterred, and that major crime will, as a result, be prevented. Criticism of the theory has tended to focus only on the latter claim.

 

The approch was taken in New York were the Police re-started regular patrols on the streets, these were not one offs or short term crackdowns but consistent regular daily patrols.

 

Giuliani's "zero tolerance" roll out was part of an interlocking set of wider reforms, crucial parts of which had been underway since 1985. Giuliani had the police more strictly enforce the law against subway fare evasion, public drinking, urination, and the "squeegee men" who had been wiping windshields of stopped cars and demanding payment. According to the 2001 study of crime trends in New York by George Kelling and William Sousa,[3] rates of both petty and serious crime fell suddenly and significantly, and continued to drop for the following ten years.

 

They concentrated on minor crimes before they turned into major crimes. I believe that Sheffield could benefit from a three pronged approch to crime

 

*Regular Street patrols-Not one offs, daily foot patrols

*Radical approch to litter/grime enforcement

*Zero Tolerance on minor crimes that make peoples quality of life poor

 

I look forward to your thoughts on this,

 

Sir Irvine

[ChrisT70]

100% yes please!

[Bulgarian]

It's a bit vague, how are these minor crimes going to be punished, prison for dropping litter ?

[alchresearch]

I like the "broken windows" approach. If someone causes you some injustice and there's no recriminations for them, just find out where they live and put their windows through on a weekly basis.

[number1owlal]

It's a bit vague, how are these minor crimes going to be punished, prison for dropping litter ?

 

no 6 weeks comunity service picking up litter

[Paul2412]

It's not as black and white as that.

 

New York was the pits. Although the actions did reduce crime, at the same time there was major infrastructure investments (something which most cities couldn't do). This in turn made property prices soar, and the rich soon snapped up real estate everywhere. This forced the poor who were committing the crimes out into the outer neighbourhoods.

 

Look at the crime statistics for the South Bronx and Brookyln. The crime hasn't gone, it has just moved away from Manhattan.

 

Sheffield couldn't do that, as it doesn't have prime real estate that rich people want to get their hands on.

[Worjackie]

Crime hasn't increased, it's the perception of crime that's gone up thanks to the internet and rolling news channels. It's probably safer to walk the streets now than it's even been.

[Bedders]

Crime hasn't increased, it's the perception of crime that's gone up thanks to the internet and rolling news channels. It's probably safer to walk the streets now than it's even been.

 

Yeah right! You'll believe any old tosh! Wait until you are a victim of crime & it takes best part of 8 months for the crime to reach resolution through the courts & justice system!

 

No crime= quick and swift justice?

 

Ignorance is bliss matey.... you keep on believing!

[buck]

It's a bit vague, how are these minor crimes going to be punished, prison for dropping litter ?

The best punishnebt of all for minor crimes, the pocket.

[buck]

One thing that's helped reduce street crime has been the reduction in cops riding around in cars and back on the beat. What has also helped is that much maligned vehicle in Sheffield the bicycle. Bicycle cops are up close and personal and can run down a fleeing felon a lot better than on foot.