Doylestown police cited two teenagers this week for .
What they were drawing was not the issue, police said, but when and where they were caught.
"They were doing it at midnight, in the middle of the street," Doylestown Borough Police Chief Jim Donnelly said Thursday. "And, we’ve had several instances of vandalism with the offenders using chalk."
Chalk or no chalk? Were the police right?
On the surface, this seems almost ridiculous, but it follows an approach to policing called the Broken Window Theory. The idea is that if police pursue petty crimes, such as vandalism, it eventually reduces bigger crimes.
In an article titled "Broken Windows" in the March 1982 edition of “The Atlantic Monthly,” the authors wrote:
Consider a building with a few broken windows. If the windows are not repaired, the tendency is for vandals to break a few more windows. Eventually, they may even break into the building, and if it's unoccupied, perhaps become squatters or light fires inside. Or consider a sidewalk. Some litter accumulates. Soon, more litter accumulates. Eventually, people even start leaving bags of trash from take-out restaurants there or breaking into cars.
Does this still have meaning today? Leave a comment.
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"people complain about all the bad stuff kids do, and here is an incident where a kid is acting like a KID and it's wrong?? I think there are more important things to worry about." - Darlene Smiley Hewitt "Is there a curfew?" - Anne Bridget Kowalski McKernan "Well, of course! It's a gateway crime! Let kids draw pictures with chalk on the ground and they might move on to playing hopscotch or even 4 Square! (Um... asking whether kids drawing with sidewalk chalk should be a criminal offense WAS meant as a joke, right?)" - Marion Smith
U opened with Kids on Sidewalk YES that is an OK thing ... they are under supervision by family & Friends.. Not 18 yr Olds Running around @ midnight in the DARK in the Middle of the street.. if you take away the Chalk to makes it sound like it is Teenagers being Stupid OR out for trouble...
If the Police Department and local authorities , do not realize, their affects, on the decisions, that , they make against, childhood development , they should contact, someone , in the Federal Government, on the affects. Is this, inner city development ? Early Childhood Development in Bucks County.