CityLab Daily: There’s No Such Thing as a Dangerous Neighborhood

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Break glass: Since it was proposed in 1982, the “broken windows theory” that posits a link between physical disorder and crime has heavily influenced American policing strategies, even as it has divided experts. Joining the critics is writer and researcher Stephen Lurie; in a forthcoming study from the National Network for Safe Communities, he and his colleagues argue that serious urban violence has little to do with communities being inherently dangerous. Instead, the majority of crimes are committed by very small social networks of people. “Violent crime isn’t waiting to happen on any given block of a poorer neighborhood, nor is it likely to arise from just anyone who happens to live in one,” Lurie writes. Read his perspective on CityLab: There’s No Such Thing as a Dangerous Neighborhood