Sidewalk Art Prevents Crime Cascades
Article:
http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2011/11/03/policing-through-art
Background:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/03/broken-windows/4465/
http://www.broadwaymall.org/our-programs/public-art/
“Just say no.” “If Bobby jumped off a bridge, would you jump off a bridge?” “Be true to yourself.” “Don’t give into peer-pressure.” These are all phrases parents and teachers often tell children in their attempts to steer them toward a future of individuality and independent decision-making. However, daily adult actions that mimic the concepts of information cascades and tipping points discussed in chapters 16 and 17 of David Easley and Jon Kleinberg’s Networks, Crowds, and Markets, show the hypocrisy behind these words, as societal norms and environments influence adults on a daily basis.
Social norms play a major factor in determining individual behavior, and thus often dictate the appropriate way to act in a certain situation. Adults are constantly monitoring the decisions of other people, as well as the environment surrounding them to determine the appropriate course of action. This Columbia Spectator article talks specifically about the James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling’s “broken windows theory” brought up in a 1982 issue of the Atlantic Monthly, in relation to urban development efforts in New York City. Wilson and Kelling’s theory discusses the cascade effect of crime as a result of public signals developing from broken windows: “If the windows are not repaired, the tendency is for vandals to break a few more windows. Eventually, they may even break into the building, and if it’s unoccupied, perhaps become squatters or light fires inside” (Kelling). The issue of rising crime in urban areas with a lesser quality of life comes out of the concept of cascade effects discussed in Networks, Crowds, and Markets. Individuals look at signals from society to determine the appropriate course of action. Thus, just as an individual who might choose restaurant B over A, upon seeing more people in restaurant B, when an individual becomes aware of more than one signal, such as a broken window, graffiti marked wall, or a littered sidewalk, dictating social norms, they too may act in accordance with the signals they see, and contribute to the vandalism, or even go beyond small crimes of littering and breaking windows to greater acts of violence after seeing the destitute surroundings in the urban environment.
The Broadway Mall Association is taking steps to counter this cascade of violence in urban environments, with acts of artistry. With help from the department of parks and recreation, it is holding a new public art exhibition extending from Columbus Circle through Washington Heights, setting up sculptures and artwork to decorate Broadway, from now until April 18th. Their initiative to beautify streets and spark urban redevelopment efforts to change the public signals of vandalism and crime, works to turn around the negative cascades being formed by small, yet incredibly effective daily acts of crime.
Cascades can be wrong. Cascades are fragile. “That cascades can be based on relatively little information, makes them easy to start; but it can also make them easy to stop” (Easley 503). The Broadway Mall Association recognizes this concept of fragile cascades behind the broken window theory, and thus understand that by fixing small problems, like those broken windows and acts of vandalism before they reach the tipping point (526), and cascade into a set of social signals that promote violence and criminal activity, they can stop the negative effects of cascades.
