19 febbraio 2006

On crime and "zero tolerance"

Having finished Martin Sanchez Jankowski's study of street gangs in Boston, New York and Los Angeles, it might be interesting to have a look at the feature today in the Boston Globe on the evidence for and against (mostly against) the "broken windows" theory of crime suppression (better known in New York under the label "zero tolerance"). It traces the theory through the career of one of its best known advocates, William Bratton, who headed police forces in Boston, New York and Los Angeles.