Forget Broken Windows: Think ‘Busy Streets’

Neighborhoods struggling with physical decline and high crime often become safer simply when local residents work together to fix up their neighborhood. Research from cities across the United States shows how small changes to urban environments—like planting flowers or adding benches—reduce violence.

The result is an emerging crime prevention theory called ‘busy streets’. Busy streets flips the logic of the broken windows theory on its head.

Read more about the busy streets theory on the website of citylab.