c0rinne.net

The Politics of Windows

I was commenting on Jem’s post, and then I realized that my answer was way to long to use as a comment, so here it is:

Well, I’ve just finished my Urban Politics course, and I can see the benefits of being the “toffee-nosed snob [whose] head [is] stuck up” their behinds.

There is a concept called “broken windows,” developed and written about by George Kelley and J.Q. Wilson, that says that if a building’s window is left broken, chances are, in relatively no time, more windows will be broken, and greater crimes will occur etc.

The government and police try to enforce norms that are not necessarily against the law, but do disturb the peace so as to ensure that major problems will not occur. If you allow vagrants to sleep on the streets and panhandlers to beg for money, this will keep people from staying on the streets because they do not want to be harassed.

Less people on the streets allows freedom for criminals to conduct business.

In general society, enforcing or supporting certain norms should decrease the chances that other problems exist. The fact is that a child has a better chance if living in a two family home. Does divorce preclude them from having a successful life? Of course not, but statistics have proven that, for example, boys with a fatherly influence are more likely than boys with fatherly influences to either be “dead beat dads,” chronically unemployed, criminals, etc.

The a governments interference into a families personal life is not always the best thing. However, if it is possible to try to help families stay together, I think that it may be a good thing.

Children learn from their parents. Which means that children learn their dysfunctions.