Illusion of Order: The False Promise of Broken Windows PolicingThis is the first book to challenge the broken-windows theory of crime, which argues that permitting minor misdemeanors, such as loitering and vagrancy, to go unpunished only encourages more serious crime. The theory has revolutionized policing in the United States and abroad, with its emphasis on policies that crack down on disorderly conduct and aggressively enforce misdemeanor laws. The problem, argues Bernard Harcourt, is that although the broken-windows theory has been around for nearly thirty years, it has never been empirically verified. Indeed, existing data suggest that it is false. Conceptually, it rests on unexamined categories of law abiders and disorderly people and of order and disorder, which have no intrinsic reality, independent of the techniques of punishment that we implement in our society. How did the new order-maintenance approach to criminal justice--a theory without solid empirical support, a theory that is conceptually flawed and results in aggressive detentions of tens of thousands of our fellow citizens--come to be one of the leading criminal justice theories embraced by progressive reformers, policymakers, and academics throughout the world? This book explores the reasons why. It also presents a new, more thoughtful vision of criminal justice. |
Contents
1 | |
The OrderMaintenance Approach | 23 |
Empirical Critique | 57 |
The Broken Windows Theory | 59 |
Policing Strategies and Methodology | 90 |
Theoretical Critique | 123 |
On Disorderly Disreputable or Unpredictable People | 127 |
The Implications of Subject Creation | 160 |
The Turn to Harm as Justification | 185 |
Rethinking Punishment and Criminal Justice | 215 |
An Alternative Vision | 217 |
Toward a New Mode of Political Analysis | 242 |
Notes | 251 |
265 | |
289 | |
Rhetorical Critique | 181 |
Other editions - View all
Illusion of Order: The False Promise of Broken Windows Policing Bernard E. Harcourt No preview available - 2005 |
Common terms and phrases
aggressive analysis anti-gang loitering ordinance argued Banfield bathhouses behavior broken windows policing broken windows theory burglary carceral CCRB Chicago collective efficacy conduct correlation crime rates criminal justice Criminal Law curfews debate decline disciplinary disorder and crime disorderly dows theory drug Durkheim effect essay fact Feinberg focus focused Foucault gang gay bathhouses George Kelling harm arguments harm principle homeless homicides implemented increase James Q juridical juvenile gun possession juvenile snitching Kahan and Meares Law Review maintenance ment misdemeanor misdemeanor arrests Model Penal Code moral norm-focused NYPD offenses order-maintenance approach order-maintenance policing p-value panhandling percent persons police officers policing strategies political pornography problem proposed prostitution punishment quality-of-life initiative regulation relationship Report robbery victimization Sampson and Raudenbush Skogan snitching policy social meaning social norm society statistical stops and frisks street subject creation suggest tion variables Wilson and Kelling writings York City York Police Department