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MAKING ORDER OF DISORDER: A CALL FOR CONCEPTUAL CLARITY *
Author(s) -
KUBRIN CHARIS E.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
criminology and public policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.6
H-Index - 33
eISSN - 1745-9133
pISSN - 1538-6473
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-9133.2008.00502.x
Subject(s) - george (robot) , clarity , order (exchange) , sociology , suite , library science , citation , media studies , computer science , art history , law , history , political science , biochemistry , chemistry , finance , economics
Over the past several years, social science has not been kind to brokenwindows theory. Various critiques have led some scholars to conclude thatthe “theoretical arc of the broken windows or incivilities thesis has at theleast flattened out and may be in decline” (Taylor, 2006:1625). Criticismssurface on several dimensions. Among the most scathing, Harcourt (2001)takes issue with the concept of “disorder,” claiming it is socially con-structed, variable, and biased against lower class culture. He also chal-lenges the notion that disorder and crime are related. In his reanalysis ofSkogan’s (1990) data, Harcourt documents no support for a disorder-crimerelationship, finding “no statistically significant relationships between dis-order and purse snatching, physical assault, burglary, or rape when otherexplanatory variables are held constant” (p. 78).Other studies grant that although disorder and crime may be related,the nature and strength of the relationship are questionable. Sampson andRaudenbush (2001:4) find it is the structural characteristics of neighbor-hoods, as well as neighborhood cohesion and informal social control (i.e.,collective efficacy)—not levels of disorder—that most affect crime. Andother studies similarly document that disorder takes a back seat to morepowerfully predictive aspects of neighborhood fabric such as status andstability (Taylor, 2008; see also Taylor, 2001).Social science also has not been kind to the most common policyresponse based on the broken windows perspective: order maintenancepolicing.