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Broken Windows Theory—100 Mental Models #034 👽
The one weird trick that reduces crime.
Published in
1 min readAug 6, 2019
Broken Windows Theory: Maintaining and monitoring urban environments to prevent small crimes such as vandalism and public drinking helps create an atmosphere of lawfulness and order, therefore preventing more serious crimes from occurring.
Example:
In 2005, Harvard University and Suffolk University researchers worked with local police in Lowell, Massachusetts. They identified 34 ‘crime hot spots’. In half the locations, they made no changes. But in the other half, authorities cleared trash, fixed streetlights, enforced building codes, discouraged loiterers, and made more misdemeanour arrests. The areas that received extra attention saw a reduction in crime by 20%.
Wisdom:
“One unrepaired broken window is a signal that no one cares, and so breaking more windows costs nothing.” — James Q. Wilson
