The lifestyle in the city

As it has been custom we discuss on our weekly blogs the issues that we go over on or urban community. I will focus on the issue of the broken window’s theory that was discussed on Great American City by Robert J. Sampson. It is a theory that is based on disorganization of communities. An interesting observation from the book is on page 143, “People divide the urban world into manageable bits, with one of the most important differentiating characteristics being signs of disorder.”

            The Broken window’s theory explained on chapter six is a simple theory of disorder in communities. This theory brings an insight of community behavior and how behavior and perspective in certain communities has an effect on crime. This is a very interesting theory to me. It is a theory that makes sense; they gave an example of a building that has some broken windows. If those windows are not repaired it creates the opportunity of vandalism. It goes from one broken window to every single window broken, to eventually having people breaking in the building.

            As I have mentioned I live in the community of Little Village in Chicago. This theory is very similar to me since my friends and I were part of that disorganization. Many teenagers from my high school took advantage of these abandoned houses and would use them for chill sets. These houses gave us the opportunity to vandalize, party, and skip school. Some of these houses were used for gang activity. Some of my friends would mention it was their spot for dealing or hiding guns. It was the biggest reason why neighbors of these abandoned houses wouldn’t call the police because they were afraid. They didn’t know if it was infiltrated with gangs or just troublemakers. Its interesting the perspective how minor crimes can eventually lead to higher crimes. In the book it mentions that disorder in communities and using the broken windows theory does not truly explain or predict the level of crime in a disorderly community.

            An interesting observation from the broken windows theory is the living conditions that are presented in different neighborhoods. Something that has always been in my head is why does it seem that neighborhoods from higher income seem to care how their community looks compared against a lower income neighborhood.  My community may have a lot of social ties, but it has also many broken ties. Little Village is not as bad as other communities but you can still see some social disorganization in the community due to gangs. When you compare my community Little Village with North Lawndale there are many pros and cons from each neighborhood. In North Lawndale you can see the infestation of drugs controlling the streets. You see teenagers or adolescents hanging out in the corners trying to hustle their drugs. You don’t see that type of disorganization going on in little village. You would see a different type of disorganization and that is houses having graffiti of local and rival gangs. I have friends that live in North Lawndale you see more interactions within the community compared to mine. As we have read in the book looks are everything. If a community looks bad with houses boarded up and disorganization it is less likely that people will move in. Houses are way cheaper in North Lawndale when comparing to the Little Village community. It has a lot to due with the presentation of community.

            Over all the broken window’s theory is something that makes sense to me. It is theories that can help us explain why there is a continuation of crime in disorganized communities. Despite that there is little evidence that show’s minor crimes can essentially lead to bigger crimes. A big problem when it comes to broken windows theory and we discussed in class was that there is crime everywhere. The perspective of neighborhoods does not truly define if their will be crime or not.