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Abstract
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OBJECTIVES:We examine the process of disorder perception to test whether different people perceive social and physical phenomenon the same way.
METHODS:We use laboratory experimental methods to collect information from 361 respondents (120 police officers and 241 students). One hundred photos with various social and physical attributes were shown during the experiment to test how they affect individuals' judgments. Specifically, we test the effects of physical signs and social traits such as the race and dress styles of social actors on disorder perception.
RESULTS:The presence of physical disorder, such as trash and graffiti, increases respondents' ratings of disorderliness. Moreover, race and dress style had significant impacts on how respondents perceived social and physical environments.
CONCLUSIONS:We challenge the perception invariant assumption behind the broken windows thesis. When only physical disorder is present, the consistency of ratings is high. When both social and physical cues are present, agreement among respondents drops to about 50 percent. Moreover, places with lower-class foreign groups are more likely to be viewed as disorderly. Thus, we caution the validity of broken windows-based policies. Future research needs to replicate the research in a more diverse society to verify the generalizability of the findings.
Language: en |