A recent article by Anthony A. Braga, Jerry Lee Professor of Criminology and Director, Crime and Justice Policy Lab, at the University of Pennsylvania revisits the 1982 landmark article in Atlantic, written by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling introducing the Broken Windows thesis.

Policing as Public Health
Why Broken Windows still applies

Twenty-first-century policymakers profess a deep commitment to “public health,” and they now apply the concept to the problem of violent crime in cities. When Joe Biden took office as president in 2021, for example, he promoted the adoption of public-health interventions to address an uptick of murders; last June, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declared gun violence a public-health crisis.

These initiatives may be well-intentioned, but they ignore a hard truth. Police departments play a critical role in controlling violent crime and should be part of the public-health approach. Advocates of such an approach to crime tend to be reluctant to engage the police, worried about racially disparate policing and incarceration statistics. Yet the wholesale avoidance of the police works against their goals.

Public-health advocates regularly suggest preventing violence by, for instance, securing abandoned properties, cleaning up blighted lots, and fixing street lighting. But improving the physical environment is an old and well-established idea in policing.

To read the complete article, please click here.

The proposed “Blight Mitigation Act (HB0006) was most recently referred to the House Rules Committee (January 9th).

The synopsis of the bill states:

Creates the Blight Mitigation Act.
Provides that a property owner that lives within one-fourth of a mile of and on the same street as residential real property that has been abandoned may, after the property has been continuously abandoned for 12 months, petition the court for title to the land.
Provides that the court shall order that title to the real property be transferred to the petitioner if the petitioner presents clear and convincing evidence that:
(1) the property is abandoned;
(2) the owner of the property has been made a party to the action in accordance with the Code of Civil Procedure and court rules; and
(3) the property is not: listed for sale on a multiple listing service; being maintained in receivership status; or under contract for sale. Effective immediately.

To view the text of the bill, please click here.

To view a related media article, please click here.