Only now, years after reading Malcolm Gladwell’s book, have I come to realise the broken windows theory is underpinned by a totally unrealistic view of human nature. It’s yet another variant on veneer theory. It made police in New York treat ordinary people like potential criminals: the smallest misstep could supposedly be the first on a path to far worse. After all, our layer of civilisation is tenuously thin. Officers, meanwhile, were being managed as though they possessed no judgement of their own. No intrinsic motivation. They were drilled by their superiors to make their departments look
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