Zero Tolerance Policing Flashcards
When was zero tolerance used within political rhetoric in the UK?
- Shows the public the government are tough on crime
- Begun with new labour and Tony Blair and Jack Straw
- Now making a comeback with David Cameron
- Also moves beyond just policing but a general politician slogan for all areas e.g. hospital care
What other theories are pretty much the same with different names?
Broken Windows
Order Maintenance
Quality of life policing
What was the policing environment when Wilson and Kelling (1982) theorised broken windows theory?
(3)
- 1960s/70s research suggested foot patrol had no impact on crime rates (police are likely to once in every 8 years to walk across a crime)
- Police resources put into emergency response/car patrol
- Focus on serious crime rather than minor ‘incivilities’
What are the key principles of broken windows theory? Wilson and Kelling (1982)
1) Fear of crime and crime risk - fear of crime is not ‘irrational’, fear comes from low-level disorder which intimidates citizens
2) Links between disorder and crime - Erosion of informal community controls therefore less likely to police their own communities due to fear, Law abiding people avoid public spaces which opens up further lack of control and less infomral social ties, and Graduation from incivilities to serious crime (‘anything goes’)
3) Spirals of decline - Communities reach ‘tipping points’ after which disorder and crime spiral out of control and feed off each other
4) Community controls and order-maintenance policing - police need to reclaim the streets, clamp down on incivilities/disorder and trigger a ‘virtuous circle’ (spiral of improvement)
What is the empirical evidence for ‘Broken Windows’ disorder-crime relationship?
- Correlation supported by Skogan (1990) supports BW but no intentionally
- Criticized by Harcourt (1999) for being poor study with ambiguous definitions with a lack of clear or casual connection demonstrated
- “Disorder” and “crime” both related to more fundamental conditions in deprived neighbourhoods
What are the conceptual concerns regarding Broken Windows theory? (4)
- Simplistic dichotomies – “Respectable/problematic” populations; “orderly/disorderly” behaviour
- Disorder/incivility as a political/social construction (links to labelling theory)
- Varies in context e.g. banksy
- What is illegal/legal and what is just undesired? criminalising people at the bottom e.g. homeless people
Who brought Zero Tolerance to New York? And when and why?
Rudy Giuliani and Bill Bratton
1990s
Struggling with high crime rates and NYPD were very depressed as nothing was changing
What did zero tolerance do to policing in NYC? (7)
- movement to Quality of Life Policing
- Devolved accountability which police shamed and police reforms
- Tackle the minor things as has an effect on the big things
- COMPSTAT
- Use of civil laws
- Bratton was a Charismatic leadership, with very good PR
- Increased police numbers (36K-47K 1990-1995)
What impact did the introduction of ZT policing to NYC have on crime rates? Homicide? Car Theft? Burglary and Robbery? Rape?
Homicide: -66%
Car theft: -70%
Burglary and robbery: - 61%
Rape: -35%
What explanations were given to explain the dropping crime rates in NY after the introduction of ZT?
- economic trends: prospering again
- demographic shifts: ageing population
- imprisonment
- drugs markets (decline in crack, Ben Bowling 1999)
- policing: limited but some impact
What 3 places in the UK was ZT brought in?
- Metropolitan Police - Operation ‘Zero Tolerance’ (Kings Cross, London)
- Cleveland Police - ‘Confident Policing’ in Hartlepool and Middlesbrough
‘Robocop’ Ray Mallon - Strathclyde Police - Operation ‘spotlight’
What act is a key ‘broken windows’ type? And what does this include?
Crime and Disorder Act 1998 includes: Multi-agency partnerships Anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs) Youth curfews
What recent developments in policing Britain reflect broken windows theory?
Anti-social behaviour Act 2003
Neighbourhood wardens
The ‘Respect’ Agenda
Political use of ZT terminology/symbols
What is the ongoing debate about ZT in the UK?
- August 2011 Riots
- Brining back vaguely, Cameron has commitment to ZT – “We haven’t talked the language of zero tolerance enough”
- Bill Bratton mooted as next Commissioner of Metropolitan Police, therefore Appointed as PM’s ‘advisor’ on gangs (but no longer involved at all, political fad?)
What is the ongoing debate about ZT in the US?
- Academic debate continues (Harcourt versus Kelling)
- Bratton re-appointed as New York City Police Commissioner in 2013
- Recent killings by police in US cities re-ignite debate (Mike Brown, Eric Garner)