Fixing Broken Windows: Restoring Order and Reducing Crime in our Communities.(Brief Article)

George L. Kelling and Catherine M. Coles. Free Press, $24 ISBN 0-684-82446-9

This book offers a dry but convincing argument for community policing and other approaches to civic order that pay attention to small incivilities like aggressive panhandling and fare-beating. The book's title derives from an influential 1982 Atlantic Monthly article by criminologist Kelling and James Q. Wilson, which argued that obvious neighborhood decay--like unattended broken windows--furthered criminal behavior. The authors cite several factors--including the rise of individualism, the decriminalization of drunkenness and the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill--that contribute …