welcome to this tutor to you sociology topic video on crime prevention focusing on environmental crime prevention environmental crime prevention became a popular form of crime prevention in the mid 1980s drawing its influences from the work of wilson and kellings on broken windows theory broken windows theory suggested that physical signs of degradation in an area such as broken windows increase the likelihood of that area having a higher rate of crime it falls broadly under the right realist perspective of crime and deviance focusing on eliminating the physical signs of disorder in an area based upon the assumption that this will give residents pride in the local neighborhood and be less likely to commit crime in that area broken windows theory had suggested that the visible signs of neglect in an area encouraged levels of crime and that these signs of disorder were more likely to be found in areas of high deprivation that had often been underfunded or ignored by local government one of the focuses of broken windows was to act rapidly to fix these signs of disorder and to crack down on those that were responsible which ushered in zero tolerance policing policies zero tolerance policing looks to tackle some of the signs of disorder in an area by shutting down bars with reputations for disorder closing down nightclubs moving on street paddlers beggars and the homeless to give an impression of order within an area removing any signs of deprivation in an area made people feel safer and this was seen in new york in the 1990s under the mayorship of rudy giuliani who increased the size of the police force in the city and took a proactive role in cleaning up the streets targeting street traders beggars and drug dealing in the city to make it safer for visitors and residents of new york this allowed for a second phase of environmental crime prevention environmental improvement environmental improvement is tackling the signs of disorder such as removing graffiti repairing broken windows and re-establishing businesses and communities in areas where there has been high transition or properties are unless or abandoned this has led to accusations of gentrification moving less desirable communities out of an area to allow for more middle class and young professional markets to move into areas which initially have lower rent but as the area becomes more desirable become increasingly unaffordable for the original residents to live in this was commonplace in areas such as new york and london throughout the latter part of the 20th and early 21st century evidence to support the impacts of environmental crime prevention comes from kaiser ettel he devised a series of field experiments to measure the levels of criminality in areas with different levels of disorder they found that in areas with physical signs of disorder the people were more likely to display deviant behaviors furthermore george kellings of wilson and callings acted as an advisor to the new york mayor's office as they pursued their policies of environmental crime prevention an example of sociological thinking informing social policy however the effectiveness of environmental crime prevention has come under some scrutiny the new york model was established at a time of falling crime rates so it's difficult to tell if these improvements were specifically influenced by environmental policy furthermore the nypd was expanded during this period and it could be argued that this led to a decline in the crime rate rather than the implementation of environmental crime prevention techniques recorded crime decreased in line with an upturn in the us economy and there was increased affluence in new york city which could also be a factor in the declining crime rate environmental crime prevention is also often utilized alongside other methods such as situational and community-based projects rather than in isolation zero tolerance policies on issues such as homelessness and drug dealing are reinforced with situational prevention policies such as increased cctv and better lighting finally environmental crime prevention is often seen as ineffective in part due to the displacement of crime to other areas with many of those subject to zero tolerance policies being moved out of areas and setting up elsewhere that concludes this cheetah to you sociology topic video looking at crime prevention focusing on environmental crime prevention thanks for watching