Flutterby™! : Broken Windows policing counterproductive

Nature Human Behavior: Letters: Evidence that curtailing proactive policing can reduce major crime, Christopher M. Sullivan and Zachary P. O’Keeffe

... Analysing several years of unique data obtained from the NYPD, we find that civilian complaints of major crimes (such as burglary, felony assault and grand larceny) decreased during and shortly after sharp reductions in proactive policing. The results challenge prevailing scholarship as well as conventional wisdom on authority and legal compliance, as they imply that aggressively enforcing minor legal statutes incites more severe criminal acts.

DOI: 10.1038/s41562-017-0211-5