[sternroolz]

I agree that it doesn't reduce other crimes much. I live in a crime ridden area of Los Angeles and can tell you that I hated Bratton's implementation of broken windows. However, and this is a big however, the practical affect is that police no longer have to concentrate on some minor crimes. For instance, when Bratton came in as chief of LAPD, there was lots of streetwalkers in various locations throughout the city. LAPD cracked down hard on it. And now there is really only 1 or two areas that still have that problem. Its something police are forced to address because people in the community call and complain. Now, in a roundabout way, it has a greater impact on other crimes because more officers can now be re-assinged from specialized units to patrol units. Bleah...its a really roundabout way....a new state law will force the officer to make certain financial disclosures so many of them want out of the specialized units. Those requests will be granted and the officers will be assigned to patrol and the vice units will shrink or disolve. Same thing with narco. By clearing the homeless in downtown and pushing narco arrests hard, there will be less need for officers to patrol downtown and babysit the homeless. These officers can then be assigned to rougher areas of the cities with gangs and stuff.

So bottom line is I don't think broken windows directly reduces serious and violent crime, but by eliminating small stuff, it eventually frees up more officers to target the more serious crimes.