Malcolm Gladwell writes about the 75th precinct in New York.[i] He describes it as “an economically desperate community destined, by most accounts, to get more desperate in the years ahead.” The precinct was especially infamous for its high crime rate. Yet, during a two period, the 75th experienced a miraculous decrease in crime. In 1993, there were 126 homicides. Two years later, there were only 44. The community was transformed. Gladwell explains: “On the streets of the Seven-Five today, it is possible to see signs of everyday life that would have been unthinkable in the early nineties. There are now ordinary people on the streets at dusk-small children riding their bicycles, old people on benches and stoops, people coming out of the subways alone.”
What happened? How could crime drop so significantly? Most people looked for large causes to explain the equally large effect—a miraculous reduction in criminal activity. But, Gladwell writes, the cause was probably something relatively small. The community transformation was eventually explained by the Broken Window Hypothesis. This hypothesis resulted from a famous experiment conducted about thirty years ago by Stanford University psychologist Philip Zimbardo. Zimbardo drove a car to a street in Palo Alto, CA. He parked it and left it there for a week. Nothing happened to the car. It remained untouched. No vandalism. No attempts to steal it. Then, Zimbardo returned to the car, took a sledgehammer, and smashed one window. Again, Zimbardo left the car parked on the street. This time, however, the car did not remain untouched. Very soon after Zimbardo walked away, the car with the smashed window was stripped bare by vandals.
Gladwell explains: “Zimbardo’s point was that disorder invites even more disorder-that a small deviation from the norm can set into motion a cascade of vandalism and criminality. The broken window was the tipping point.” Negatively, the Broken Window Hypothesis states that if you introduce one small element of disorder (a broken car widow) it can lead to larger disorder (the entire car being stripped). Positively, the hypothesis states that if you address one small element of disorder (e.g., fix a broken window) it can quickly lead to the elimination and prevention of larger disorders.
And that, Gladwell suggests, is what happened in the 75th precinct. Officers began implementing a series of small efforts like confiscating more guns, running off more groups who were loitering on street corners, and stopping more suspicious looking cars. Symbolically, they started fixing the broken windows in the community. This led eventually to a drop in larger and more serious crime. Gladwell concludes, “…sometimes the most modest of changes can bring about enormous effects. What happened to the murder rate may not be such a mystery in the end. Perhaps what [these officers] have done is the equivalent of repairing the broken window.”
The most modest of changes can bring about enormous effects. In other words, the elimination of relatively small offenses by the police led ultimately to a drop in major crime.
God has created a world in which little is the new big.
So, here are the questions:
What are the broken windows in your community? What could you and others do to start fixing them?
What are the broken windows in your life? What could you do to start fixing them?
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[i] http://www.gladwell.com/1996/1996_06_03_a_tipping.htm.
