Revisiting Broken Windows: The Role of Neighborhood and Individual Characteristics in Reaction to Disorder Cues

The influential "broken windows" theory proposes that disorder cues in neighborhoods trigger littering and other antisocial behavior. Until now, the theory has been empirically tested only on a small scale and restricted to just one specific area. In this study, I investigated the effect o...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Beate Volker
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Society for Sociological Science 2017-10-01
Series:Sociological Science
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.sociologicalscience.com/articles-v4-22-528/
Description
Summary:The influential "broken windows" theory proposes that disorder cues in neighborhoods trigger littering and other antisocial behavior. Until now, the theory has been empirically tested only on a small scale and restricted to just one specific area. In this study, I investigated the effect of disorder cues on individual behavior once more, replicating and extending the original field experiments by Keizer, Lindenberg, and Steg (2008 and 2013). The data from 12,528 individuals were collected in 84 field experiments conducted in 33 neighborhoods. The results, based on multilevel techniques for binary data, show that the absolute effect of cues is smaller than originally thought and that neighborhood and individual characteristics moderate cue effects.
ISSN:2330-6696
2330-6696