Fixing "Broken Windows": Restoring Order in American Cities

Broken windows breed disorder. So said George L. Kelling and James Q. Wilson in a groundbreaking article for the Atlantic Monthly in 1982. Now Kelling returns with Catherine M. Coles to call community policing and the aggressive protection of public spaces the best crime-control options available. Three-strikes-and-you're-out is fine as far as it goes, say the authors, but it focuses on punishment rather than prevention. Kelling and Coles make sensible suggestions for restoring law and order to the places where they no longer seem to exist. Their argument is aided immensely by real-life examples of how their "broken windows" strategy has reduced crime where it's been tried.