Broken Windows and crime rates

By Natalie Shobana Ambrose
theSun, Malaysia
December  2nd, 2010

“My neighbour was stabbed around 6pm, house got broken into! Be careful and alert wherever you are!” wrote a friend 2 days ago.
No, this did not happen in the UK where knife crime is rampant, it happened in affluent Bangsar, where some street have guard quarters and barrier and police make spot checks ever so often.
Everyday there is a report in the paper about someone being held at knife point, slashed or raped after a robbery. So we put our handbags and lap tops under the seat, hoping that at the next red light no one tries to smash the window to steal our belongings. Or when we reach home, no intruder slips in as we open the main gate. Security guard fees, CCTV cameras, alarm systems, chunky padlocks with safety keys add to our monthly expences. Gated communities seem a necessity and not a luxury anymore. We build taller fences, try not to go for walks and become more paranoid when carrying out everyday chores because our personal security is at risk even when we’re at home.
I dare say without a doubt crime has become an epidemic in urban areas around Malaysia. Perhaps I feel strongly because too many people have fallen victim.
There’s a saying that “hunger makes a thief of any man” but is it really hunger or is it greed in today’s context?
The Broken Window theory suggests that when a building has a few broken windows that are not repaired, there is a tendency for increased vandalism and perhaps even brake-ins. The underlying factor is that we need to care enough to prevent crime.
Zero-tolerance seems to be the answer but what do we do with the criminals? Shooting them in police raids is not the answer. Clearly there is a reason why all this crime is happening.
There is opportunity. If they are Malaysians, why are they not gainfully employed? What has the state not done and how do we rectify it? If they are foreigners, what are they in the country to do? Were they given what they were promised in the first place and does this crime supplement their wage to equal it out to what was promised? Surely our system has failed us and we need to care more as this epidemic grows.
Having more police patrols, is only a deterrent, the police are not omnipresent. Community safety is far more than preventing crime. It includes social and economic change.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs states that security is one of the most basic needs of every human being – and right now we in Malaysia don’t have that. Not only are we not safe, simple things like our cheques are intercepted in the mail and fraudulent cheques are allowed to be banked.
It has come to a stage where we feel there’s nothing that can be done because the cycle is so deeply intertwined and the whole system has failed and nothing can be done and no one seems to care enough to do something about it.
Perhaps what is needed now is for a strong community uprise to say ‘enough’ but who has the time to do all this community things?
Once your stuff has been stolen does anyone believe it will be found? Chances are unlikely. Perhaps if those in charge of fighting crime, make us believe that our broken windows are fixed, we might stand a better chance at having a safer community.
But for now, I’m not sure what we can do except to continue to be careful and alert wherever you are but that you might get stabbed at 6pm!