1932
0
  1. Home
  2. A-Z Publications
  3. Annual Review of Criminology
  4. Volume 2, 2019
  5. Article

Annual Review of Criminology

Volume 2, 2019

Looking Through Broken Windows: The Impact of Neighborhood Disorder on Aggression and Fear of Crime Is an Artifact of Research Design

Abstract

Broken windows theory (BWT) has heavily influenced social science and policy over the past 30 years. It posits that disorder in neighborhoods leads to elevated crime by inviting additional criminal activity and by discouraging the positive social behavior that prevents crime. Scholars have debated the veracity of BWT, and here we conduct a meta-analysis of 96 studies to examine the effects of disorder on residents’ () general proclivities for aggressive behavior and () perceptions of and attitudes toward their neighborhood (e.g., fear of crime), with particular attention to aspects of research design that might confound causal inference. We found no consistent evidence that disorder induces greater aggression or more negative attitudes toward the neighborhood. Studies that found such effects disproportionately utilized weaker research designs that omit key correlates or confound perceptions of disorder with other neighborhood attitudes. We explore implications for theory, research, and policy.

Keyword(s): aggression, broken windows theory, fear of crime, meta-analysis, neighborhood attachment, neighborhood perceptions, physical disorder, social disorder
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-criminol-011518-024638
2019-01-13
2024-04-19
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/criminol/2/1/annurev-criminol-011518-024638.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-criminol-011518-024638&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

Literature Cited

  1. Booth C 1903. Life and Labour of the People in London London: Macmillan, 3rd ed..
  2. Braga AA, Bond BJ 2008. Policing crime and disorder hot spots: a randomized controlled trial. Criminology 46:577–607
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Braga AA, Welsh BC, Schnell C 2015. Can policing disorder reduce crime? A systematic review and meta-analysis. J. Res. Crime Delinquency 52:567–88
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Branas CC, Kondo MC, Murphy SM, South EC, Polsky D, MacDonald JM 2016. Urban blight remediation as a cost-beneficial solution to firearm violence. Am. J. Public Health 106:2158–64
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Bratton W, Knobler P 2001. Turnaround New York: Random House
  6. Brown BB 1987. Territoriality. Handbook of Environmental Psychology D Stokols, I Altman 505–31 New York: Wiley
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Brown BB, Werner CM 1985. Social cohesiveness, territoriality and holiday decorations: the influence of cul-de-sacs. Environ. Behav. 17:539–65
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Browning CR, Soller B, Gardner M, Brooks-Gunn J 2013. “Feeling disorder” as a comparative and contingent process: gender, neighborhood conditions, and adolescent mental health. J. Health Soc. Behav. 54:296–314
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Burgard SA, Lee-Rife SM 2009. Community characteristics, sexual initiation, and condom use among young Black South Africans. J. Health Soc. Behav. 50:293–309
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Cialdini RB, Reno RR, Kallgren CA 1990. A focus theory of normative conduct: recycling the concept of norms to reduce littering in pulic places. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 58:1015–26
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Cohen D, Spear S, Scribner R, Kissinger P, Mason K, Widgen J 2000. “Broken windows” and the risk of gonorrhea. Am. J. Public Health 90:230–36
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Corburn J, Osleeb J, Porter M 2006. Urban asthma and the neighbourhood environment in New York City. Health Place 12:167–79
     [Google Scholar]
  13. de Leon E, Schilling J 2017. Urban blight and public health Rep. Urban Inst. Washington, DC:
  14. Del Re AC 2015. Package ‘compute.es.’ https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/compute.es/compute.es.pdf
  15. Dulin-Keita A, Casazza K, Fernandez JR, Goran MI, Gower B 2012. Do neighbourhoods matter? Neighbourhood disorder and long-term trends in serum cortisol levels. J. Epidemiol. Community Health 66:24–29
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Duval S, Tweedie R 2000. Trim and fill: a simple funnel-plot-based method of testing and adjusting for publication bias in meta-analysis. Biometrics 56:455–63
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Franzini L, Caughy MOB, Nettles SM, O'Campo P 2008. Perceptions of disorder: contributions of neighborhood characteristics to subjective perceptions of disorder. J. Environ. Psychol. 28:83–93
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Furr-Holden CDM, Lee MH, Milam AJ, Johnson RM, Lee K-S, Ialongo NS 2011. The growth of neighborhood disorder and marijuana use among urban adolescents: a case for policy and environmental interventions. J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs 72:371–79
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Garofalo J, Laub J 1978. The fear of crime: broadening our perspective. Victimology 3:242–53
     [Google Scholar]
  20. Garvin E, Branas C, Keddem S, Sellman J, Cannuscio C 2012. More than just an eyesore: local insights and solutions on vacant land and urban health. J. Urban Health 90:412–26
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Gau JM, Pratt TC 2008. Broken windows or window dressing? Citizens’ (in)ability to tell the difference between disorder and crime. Criminol. Public Policy 7:163–94
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Gau JM, Pratt TC 2010. Revisiting broken windows theory: examining the sources of the discriminant validity of perceived disorder and crime. J. Crim. Justice 38:758–66
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Haney TJ 2007. “Broken windows” and self-esteem: subjective understandings of neighborhood poverty and disorder. Soc. Sci. Res. 36:963–94
     [Google Scholar]
  24. Harcourt BE 2001. Illusion of Order: The False Promise of Broken Windows Policing Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
  25. Harcourt BE, Ludwig J 2006. Broken windows: new evidence from New York City and a five-city social experiment. Univ. Chic. Law Rev. 73:271–320
     [Google Scholar]
  26. Harris PB, Brown BB 1996. The home and identity display: interpreting resident territoriality from home exteriors. J. Environ. Psychol. 16:187–203
     [Google Scholar]
  27. Heinrich KM, Lee RE, Suminski RR, Regan GR, Reese-Smith JY et al. 2007. Associations between the built environment and physical activity in public housing residents. Int. J. Behav. Nutr. Phys. Act. 4:56
     [Google Scholar]
  28. Holt EW, Theall KP, Rabito FA 2012. Individual, housing, and neighborhood correlates of asthma among young urban children. J. Urban Health 90:116–29
     [Google Scholar]
  29. Hunter A 1974. Symbolic Communities Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
  30. Jacobs J 1961. The Death and Life of Great American Cities New York: Random House
  31. Keizer K, Lindenberg S, Steg L 2008. The spreading of disorder. Science 332:1681–85
     [Google Scholar]
  32. Keizer K, Lindenberg S, Steg L 2013. The importance of demonstratively restoring order. Public Libr. Sci. 8:e65137
     [Google Scholar]
  33. Kelling GL, Bratton WJ 2015. Why we need broken windows policing. City Journal Winter 2015. https://www.city-journal.org/html/why-we-need-broken-windows-policing-13696.html
  34. Kelling GL, Coles CM 1997. Fixing Broken Windows: Restoring Order and Reducing Crime in our Communities New York: Simon & Schuster
     [Google Scholar]
  35. Kelling GL, Wilson JQ 1982. Broken windows: the police and neighborhood safety. Atl. Monthly 127:29–38
     [Google Scholar]
  36. Kneeshaw-Price SH, Saelens BE, Sallis JF, Frank LD, Grembowski DE et al. 2015. Neighborhood crime-related safety and its relation to children's physical activity. J. Urban Health 92:472–89
     [Google Scholar]
  37. Kotabe HP, Kardan O, Berman MG 2016. The order of disorder: deconstructing visual disorder and its effect on rule-breaking. J. Exp. Psychol. 145:1713–27
     [Google Scholar]
  38. Kubrin CE 2008. Making order of disorder: a call for conceptual clarity. Criminol. Public Policy 7:203–14
     [Google Scholar]
  39. Latkin CA, Curry AD, Hua W, Davey MA 2007. Direct and indirect associations of neighborhood disorder with drug use and high-risk sexual partners. Am. J. Prev. Med. 32:S234–41
     [Google Scholar]
  40. Lewin K 1943. Psychology and the process of group living. J. Soc. Psychol. 17:113–31
     [Google Scholar]
  41. Lipsey MW, Wilson D 2001. Practical Meta-Analysis Woburn, MA: SAGE
  42. Markowitz F, Bellair P, Liska A, Jianhong LJ 2001. Extending social disorganization theory: modeling the relationships between cohesion, disorder, and fear. Criminology 39:293–319
     [Google Scholar]
  43. Massey DS 2004. Segregation and stratification: a biosocial perspective. Du Bois Rev 1:7–25
     [Google Scholar]
  44. Mayhew H 1862. London Labor and the London Poor London: Griffin Bohn
  45. Meares T 2015. Broken windows, neighborhoods, and the legitimacy of law enforcement, or why I fell in and out of love with Zimbardo. J. Res. Crime Delinquency 52:609–25
     [Google Scholar]
  46. Milam AJ, Furr-Holden CDM, Leaf PM 2010. Perceived school and neighborhood safety, neighborhood violence and academic achievement in urban school children. Urban Rev 42:458–67
     [Google Scholar]
  47. Molnar BE, Gortmaker SL, Bull FC, Buka SL 2004. Unsafe to play? Neighborhood disorder and lack of safety predict reduced physical activity among urban children and adolescents. Am. J. Health Promot. 18:378–86
     [Google Scholar]
  48. Nicklett EJ, Lohman MC, Smith ML 2017. Neighborhood environment and falls among community-dwelling older adults. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 14:E175
     [Google Scholar]
  49. O'Brien DT 2015. Custodians and custodianship in urban neighborhoods: a methodology using reports of public issues received by a city's 311 hotline. Environ. Behav. 47:304–27
     [Google Scholar]
  50. O'Brien DT 2016.a 311 hotlines, territoriality, and the collaborative maintenance of the urban commons: examining the intersection of a coproduction policy and evolved human behavior. Evol. Behav. Sci. 10:123–41
     [Google Scholar]
  51. O'Brien DT 2016.b Lamp lighters and sidewalk smoothers: how individual residents contribute to the maintenance of the urban commons. Am. J. Community Psychol. 58:391–409
     [Google Scholar]
  52. O'Brien DT 2016.c Using small data to interpret big data: 311 reports as individual contributions to informal social control in urban neighborhoods. Soc. Sci. Res. 59:83–96
     [Google Scholar]
  53. O'Brien DT, Gordon E, Baldwin-Philippi J 2014.a Caring about the community, counteracting disorder: 311 reports of public issues as expressions of territoriality. J. Environ. Psychol. 40:320–30
     [Google Scholar]
  54. O'Brien DT, Kauffman RA 2013. Broken windows and low adolescent prosociality: not cause and consequence but co-symptoms of low collective efficacy. Am. J. Community Psychol. 51:359–69
     [Google Scholar]
  55. O'Brien DT, Norton C, Cohen J, Wilson DS 2014.b Local adaptation in community perception: how background impacts judgments of neighborhood safety. Environ. Behav. 46:213–40
     [Google Scholar]
  56. O'Brien DT, Offenhuber D, Baldwin-Philippi J, Sands M, Gordon E 2017. Uncharted territoriality in coproduction: the motivations for 311 reporting. J. Public Adm. Res. Theory 27:320–35
     [Google Scholar]
  57. O'Brien DT, Sampson RJ 2015. Public and private spheres of neighborhood disorder: assessing pathways to violence using large-scale digital records. J. Res. Crime Delinquency 52:486–510
     [Google Scholar]
  58. O'Brien DT, Wilson DS 2011. Community perception: the ability to assess the safety of unfamiliar neighborhoods and respond adaptively. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 100:606–20
     [Google Scholar]
  59. Park RE, Burgess EW, McKenzie RD 1925/1984. The City: Suggestions for Investigation of Human Behavior in the Urban Environment Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
     [Google Scholar]
  60. Perkins DD, Wandersman A, Rich RC, Taylor RB 1993. The physical environment of street crime: defensible space, territoriality and incivilities. J. Environ. Psychol. 13:29–49
     [Google Scholar]
  61. Roman CG, Stodolska M, Yahner J, Shinew K 2013. Pathways to outdoor recreation, physical activity, and delinquency among urban Latino adolescents. Ann. Behav. Med. 45:151–61
     [Google Scholar]
  62. Sampson RJ, Raudenbush SW 1999. Systematic social observation of public spaces: a new look at disorder in urban neighborhoods. Am. J. Sociol. 105:603–51
     [Google Scholar]
  63. Sampson RJ, Raudenbush SW 2004. Seeing disorder: neighborhood stigma and the social construction of “broken windows. .” Soc. Psychol. Q. 67:317–42
     [Google Scholar]
  64. Sampson RJ, Raudenbush SW, Earls F 1997. Neighborhoods and violent crime: a multilevel study of collective efficacy. Science 277:918–24
     [Google Scholar]
  65. Skogan W 1986. Fear of crime and neighborhood change. Communities and Crime J Albert, J Reiss, M Tonry 203–29 Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
     [Google Scholar]
  66. Skogan W 1990. Disorder and Decline: Crime and the Spiral of Decay in American Cities Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press
  67. Skogan WG 1992. Disorder and Decline Berkeley, CA: University of California Press
  68. Skogan WG, Frydl K 2004. Fairness and Effectiveness in Policing: The Evidence Washington, DC: Natl. Acad. Press
  69. Steenbeek W, Hipp JR 2011. A longitudinal test of social disorganization theory: feedback effects among cohesion, social control, and disorder. Criminology 49:833–71
     [Google Scholar]
  70. St. Jean PKB 2007. Pockets of Crime: Broken Windows, Collective Efficacy, and the Criminal Point of View Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
     [Google Scholar]
  71. Taylor B, Koper CS, Woods DJ 2011. A randomized controlled trial of different policing strategies at hot spots of violent crime. J. Exp. Criminol. 7:149–81
     [Google Scholar]
  72. Taylor RB 1988. Human Territorial Functioning: An Empirical, Evolutionary Perspective on Individual and Small Group Territorial Cognitions, Behaviors and Consequences Cambridge: Campbridge Univ. Press
  73. Taylor RB 2001. Breaking Away from Broken Windows: Baltimore Neighborhoods and the Nationwide Fight Against Crime, Grime, Fear, and Decline Boulder, CO: Westview Press
  74. Taylor RB 2005. The incivilities or “broken windows” thesis. Encyclopedia of Law Enforcement LE Sullivan, MS Rosen, DM Schulz, MR Haberfeld 31–35 Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE
     [Google Scholar]
  75. Taylor RB, Gottfredson SD, Bower S 1984. Block crime and fear: defensible space, local social ties, and territorial functioning. J. Res. Crime Delinquency 21:303–31
     [Google Scholar]
  76. Theall KP, Brett ZH, Shirtcliff EA, Dunn EC, Drury SS 2013. Neighborhood disorder and telomeres: connecting children's exposure to community level stress and cellular response. Soc. Sci. Med. 85:50–58
     [Google Scholar]
  77. Viechtbauer W 2015. Metafor: A Meta-Analysis Package for R http://www.metafor-project.org/doku.php
  78. Vo P, Bair-Merritt M, Camargo J, Carlos A, Eisenberg S, Long W 2017. Individual factors, neighborhood social context and asthma at age 5 years. J. Asthma 54:265–72
     [Google Scholar]
  79. Weisburd D, Hinkle JC, Braga AA, Wooditch A 2015. Can policing disorder reduce crime? A systematic review and meta-analysis. J. Res. Crime Delinquency 52:567–88
     [Google Scholar]
  80. Weisburd D, Hinkle JC, Famega C, Ready J 2011. The possible “backfire” effects of hot spots policing: an experimental assessment of impacts on legitimacy, fear and collective efficacy. J. Exp. Criminol. 7:297–320
     [Google Scholar]
  81. Wen M, Hawkley LC, Cacioppo JT 2006. Objective and perceived neighborhood environment, individual SES and psychosocial factors, and self-rated health: an analysis of older adults in Cook County, Illinois. Soc. Sci. Med. 63:2575–90
     [Google Scholar]
  82. Wilson DB 2009. Missing a critical piece of the pie: simple document search strategies inadequate for systematic reviews. J. Exp. Criminol. 5:429–40
     [Google Scholar]
  83. Wilson JQ 1975. Thinking About Crime New York: Basic Books
  84. Yang S-M, Pao C-C 2015. Do we “see” the same thing? An experimental look into the black box of disorder perception. J. Res. Crime Delinquency 52:534–66
     [Google Scholar]
  85. Zimbardo PG 1969. The human choice: individuation, reason, and order versus deindividuation, impulse, and chaos. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation 1969 WT Arnold, D Levine 237–307 Lincoln, NE: Univ. Neb. Press
     [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-criminol-011518-024638
Loading
Looking Through Broken Windows: The Impact of Neighborhood Disorder on Aggression and Fear of Crime Is an Artifact of Research Design
Annual Review of Criminology 2, 53 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-criminol-011518-024638
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-criminol-011518-024638
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-criminol-011518-024638
Loading

Data & Media loading...

Supplemental Material

Supplementary Data

  • Article Type: Review Article
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error