In 1969, Philip Zimbardo, a psychologist from Stanford University, ran an interesting field study. He abandoned two cars in two very different places: one in a mostly poor, crime-ridden section of New ...

The idea has been embraced by people in law enforcement—crack down on petty crime and you’ll also put a halt to more serious offenses. New York City, for example, used the logic to justify a “zero ...

During the seventies and eighties, scarcely any newspaper story about rising crime failed to mention that it was strongly linked to unemployment and poverty. The argument was straightforward: if less ...

Three years ago, a group of conservative legislators from California slipped off to Texas. Among the purposes of their visit was to learn more about a new approach to controlling crime. The strategy ...

Ask residents in the San Francisco Bay Area what their most pressing regional concern is right now, and a large percentage of them will likely say crime. High-profile robberies, endless car and garage ...

Property crime rates fell by 8.1% between 2019 and 2020, but the newest quarterly data reveals crime has jumped up to 1,000% across the largest U.S. cities. The COVID-19 pandemic drastically affected ...

Despite its reputation as a hive of gun-toting murderous maniacs, the United States has enjoyed a tremendous drop in crime over the past twenty years. The murder rate alone is half what it was two ...

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily. The “Broken Windows” theory suggests that tolerance of small acts of disorder creates ...