‘Broken window’ theory co-author, James Q. Wilson dies at 80

Makes me wonder how many communities are going to be destroyed by the foreclosures brought about by the Democrats' sub-prime mortgage debacle.

Also this is just another reason why the lawlessness of the Occupy Wall Street crowd cannot be tolerated and must be cleaned up.

Excerpt: Wilson famously co-authored the “Broken Windows” article in the Atlantic Monthly in 1982, which suggested that in communities, disorder is often followed by crime. In an interview last year with The Wall Street Journal, Wilson explained that “public order is a fragile thing, and if you don’t fix the first broken window, soon all the windows will be broken.”

The “broken windows” theory was debated in Malcolm Gladwell’s 2000 book “The Tipping Point,” and in Stephen J. Dubner’s and Steven D. Levitt’s 2005 book “Freakonomics.”

The Broken Window Brigade, a citizen initiative in Chattanooga, Tenn., explains the broken window theory in the video below:



Read full Washington Post article here.