James Q. Wilson Quotes

One unrepaired broken window is a signal that no one cares, and so breaking more windows costs nothing.

If a window is broken and left unrepaired, people walking by will conclude that no one cares and no one is in charge. Soon, more windows will be broken, and the sense of anarchy will spread from the building to the street on which it faces, sending a signal that anything goes.

Broken Window Theory: 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 even break into cars.

Abandoned homes become magnets for vandalism and crime. They drag down the property values of neighboring homes.

(The city is being) destroyed by thugs who in a very senseless way are trying to tear down what so many have fought for, tearing down businesses, tearing down or destroying property, things that we know will impact our community for years.

No one knows what it's like ... to be a dustbin ... in Shaftesbury ... with hooligans.

The boarded-up homes, the decaying storefronts, the aging church rolls, kids from unknown families who swaggered down the streets - loud congregations of teenage boys, teenage girls feeding potato chips to crying toddlers, the discarded wrappers tumbling down the block - all of it whispered painful truths.

Many foreclosed homes are neglected or abandoned, as legal proceedings or other factors delay their resale. Deteriorating or vacant properties can, in turn, directly affect the quality of life in a neighborhood, for example, by leading to increases in vandalism or crime.

We have to face it: in America today the way to have fun and celebrate is to break a store window and take something. That's the way it is, today in America, and we have to accept it.

Some people see Baltimore as a hopeless place. Some have even made a lot of money on it.

If you don't visit the bad neighborhoods, the bad neighborhoods are going to visit you.

I remember Detroit feeling really unsafe, feeling scared a lot. Our house was broken into, our car was stolen, we had to get a watchdog, we would get beat up in the street, I had my bike stolen. There was just a lot of real anarchy on the streets and sidewalks.

When people accept breaking the law as normal, something happens to the whole society.

We had gay burglars the other night. They broke in and rearranged the furniture.

Shoot to maim or cripple anyone looting any stores in our city.

Look what we have built ... low-income projects that became worse centers of delinquency, vandalism and general social hopelessness than the slums they were supposed to replace.

There is no American right to loot stores, or to burn buildings, or to fire rifles from the rooftops. That is crime—and crime must be dealt with forcefully and swiftly, and certainly—under law.

Baltimore is a goddamn ghetto. It's worse than Washington. It is shit.

If any person should instigate others to plunder, and, in consequence, they should destroy anything, or steal any property, or animals; they shall be compelled to restore elevenfold the value of the property so stolen or destroyed, to him who was robbed.

I just think it's really upsetting when you see a community just go out and burn down stores and trash cars.

The whole world is covered in graffiti. No one cares. It's just part of urban noise.

I've never been robbed in person, but I've gotten my car broken into a couple of times.

Scrap metal theft costs our state countless dollars in stolen public and private property.

Even in a healthy society, violence, lawlessness, and predation lie just below the surface.

I've been in places that have been robbed.