Defining Broken Window Theory
The broken glass field theory is the theory that crime spreads around the point when a broken window is left unattended, and it is said that a chain problem can occur if a problem occurs and is not immediately taken action. It was first introduced in an article called Broken Window, co-published in the monthly Atlantic in 1982 by American criminologists James Q. Wilson and George Kelly George L. Kenning. In this article, the authors described it as follows.
Social psychologists and police would agree that if a building's windows were left broken, other windows would soon be broken as well. This trend does not lie in the wealth gap between the rich and the poor, and the broken windows that have been left behind mean that no one cares about them, and if another window breaks, they do not feel pressured.
Subway in New York
In the 1980s, there were more than 600,000 felonies a year in New York, and there was an unwritten rule among travelers at the time that they should never take the New York subway. Even if the police patrolled frequently, the security problem was not easily solved. Then Professor George L. Kelly, a criminal psychology doctor, proposed to the Transportation Authority to thoroughly erase graffiti, or graffiti, that was plastered on the New York subway at the time by applying the theory of broken windows.
The reason was that criminals could feel relieved that disorderly scribbles in public places could cause other crimes. David Gunn David Gunn, the director of the Transportation Authority at the time, accepted the professor's proposal and began erasing all graffiti on the vehicle for as long as five years. Then the rate of violent crime on the subway began to drop noticeably, and 10 years later, in 1994, it decreased by nearly half.
As a result, the number of subway felonies in New York has decreased by 75%. In fact, in our daily lives, when someone starts to throw away trash in one place, others start to throw away trash one by one, and this can also be seen as an example of the broken window theory.
Psychological interpretation
Considering the situation of throwing away trash while on the street, it fits the psychological situation. For example, if there are a few leftover to-go coffee cups lined up in an alley where cafes are concentrated, passers-by can predict that they will throw away similar coffee cups one by one, and even if the surroundings are clean and the garbage is thrown away, people passing by will not automatically throw away trash if the space is cleaned up, but even if there is a trash can, people think that this place is a place where they can throw away trash one by one and everyone will throw away trash, which will become contaminated.
An economic interpretation
From an economic point of view, if the window is broken or other damaged parts are left unattended, it signals that it is an easy prey that is not currently actively managed, starting with small things and showing confidence that it is an unmanaged object even if something like graffiti or garbage dumping occurs, the situation worsens dramatically.
Even if the problem is not revealed immediately, it can be interpreted as meaning that irreversible events can occur after that if the critical point starts to be broken. Just as the saying goes, "Fix the barn after the cow is lost," in other words, it refers to the principle of solving the cause and managing it steadily in the early stages of the problem. If you keep neglecting the problem, the worst can happen.
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