Deck 10: Seeing Disorder and the Ecology of Fear

Question 1

In her landmark study, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs emphasized that for a city to be successful…

A)people must feel safe and secure amidst all the strangers.
B)professional urban planners must be given the power to decide how to structure cities.
C)people must recognize that cities are inherently dangerous, unwelcoming places.
D)cities must be homogeneous in terms of their ethnic populations.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Jacobs's notion of "eyes on the street" emphasizes the importance of ________ as a basic defense against crime.

A)the police
B)professional urban planners
C)informal social control
D)"sentimental history"

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Jane Jacobs believes that the successful street is…

A)one on which there are no strangers.
B)self-policing.
C)one on which people stay to themselves and honor the norm of noninvolvement.
D)one on which the police are a constant presence.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Walzer believes that if the public realm becomes more disorderly, then public places will become…

A)settings for social, sexual, and political deviance.
B)self-policing urban plazas, parks, and streets.
C)more adequately policed.
D)more civil because people will feel a need to be more polite.

Question 5

Siegel argues that all but ONE of the following tended to make cities less safe.Which of the following was NOT one of the policies he thinks made cities less safe?

A)the inception of community policing
B)the decriminalization of victimless crime
C)the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill
D)the decriminalization of minor civil offenses

Question 6

Bryant Simon argues that the idea of the decline of the public sphere in America is an idealized nostalgic image that ignores the…

A)exclusion of many people from the public sphere.
B)"lost city of sidewalks and window shopping, corner stores and showy movie theaters."
C)abandonment of notions of civic responsibility.
D)openness of the public sphere to African Americans.

Question 7

Simon argues that the public realm was never about democracy, but rather about…

A)inclusion.
B)exclusion.
C)involvement.
D)urban economic development.

Question 8

Simon suggests that all but one of the following were among the reasons the White middle class abandoned Atlantic City.Which of these is NOT one of the reasons?

A)the end of segregation
B)the democratization of the public realm
C)fear of crime
D)their support for civil rights

Question 9

The coming of the casinos and their success has led to Atlantic City…

A)showing remarkable improvement as a place to live and play.
B)not actually being any better as a place to live and play.
C)becoming an integrated city with the White middle class having returned.
D)becoming a showcase for how gambling provides a better way of life for the city.

Question 10

Simon contends that the viability of the public realm and casinos are antithetical because…

A)casinos are immoral.
B)the public realm should not include private interests.
C)casinos try to keep visitors inside away from the public.
D)gambling is illegal.

Question 11

Wilson and Kelling's approach to understanding urban crime is the __________ theory.

A)"broken windows"
B)collective efficacy
C)urban civility
D)structural functional
E)symbolic interactionist

Question 12

Wilson and Kelling's "broken windows" theory argues that…

A)serious crimes often lead to property damage and, thus, broken windows.
B)neighborhoods with broken windows may have lower crime rates.
C)untended and ignored petty crimes, such as breaking a window, send out the signal that nobody cares.
D)breaking windows should be treated as a serious felony.

Question 13

In adopting the "broken windows" approach in the mid-1990s, New York City moved from a reactive policing response to a proactive response.The first approach emphasized the ________ crime while the second emphasized the ________ crime.

A)investigation of; prevention of
B)level of neighborhood; level of city
C)prosecution of victimless; prosecution of serious
D)need to measure; need to obscure

Question 14

In their "broken windows" theory, Wilson and Kelling made a connection between untended ________ and untended ________.

A)houses; neighborhoods
B)misdemeanors; felonies
C)blocks; streets
D)property; behavior

Question 15

Eric Garner died as a result of being choked to death despite his repeated gasps of "I can't breathe." Hutter contends that…

A)Garner's death was inevitable.
B)Garner's death would not have happened in Brooklyn when he was a boy.
C)Garner should not have been committing an illegal act.
D)Garner was a large man resisting arrest.

Question 16

Mitchell Duneier criticizes the "broken windows" approach for failing to distinguish between ________ disorder and ________ disorder.

A)illegal; legal
B)public; private
C)physical; social
D)symbolic; ecological

Question 17

People engaging in behavior that is seen as disorderly, threatening, and potentially criminal by the better off and more powerful is an example of…

A)physical disorder.
B)urban disorder.
C)social disorder.
D)legal disorder.

Question 18

In his research on the street lives of poor Black men who sell magazines or books, or who panhandle in Greenwich Village, Duneier analyzes the…

A)lack of social order in everyday social interactions.
B)rules and regulations set up by the street people to self-regulate their spatial distribution of who sells and who does what and where.
C)increasing disorder in the public sphere and how it leads to an ecology of fear.
D)rules and regulations set up by the police to regulate the men's spatial distribution.

Question 19

Duneier's research on everyday street life indicates…

A)a lack of social order in everyday interactions.
B)no real patterns in urban street life.
C)that broken windows are inevitable in urban neighborhoods.
D)that there is an underlying sense of social order on the streets.

Question 20

Which of the following is one of the most vocal critics of the "broken windows" theory?

A)Mike Davis
B)George Kelling
C)James Q.Wilson
D)Catherine Cole

Question 21

Mike Davis argues that the Los Angeles Police Department developed strategies of crime control that aimed to…

A)link physical disorder with social disorder.
B)make the streets safer by treating the homeless and poor with tact and gentleness.
C)criminalize much of the behavior of the poor and so-called "undesirables."
D)increase the levels of trust among strangers on city streets.

Question 22

Bernard Harcourt criticizes the "broken windows" theory as…

A)a detrimental philosophy portrayed as an enlightened pragmatic public policy.
B)an enlightened pragmatic policy that, for all its good intentions, just did not work.
C)too focused on the "root causes" of crime.
D)too concerned with the plight of the poor and homeless to be an effective policy.

Question 23

Harcourt argues that the underlying "root causes" of much physical and social disorder in communities include all BUT which one of the following?

A)poverty
B)discrimination
C)permissive police
D)poor education
E)lack of jobs and economic opportunities

Question 24

Because issues of doubt and trust usually pervade interactions among strangers, people use which of the following as clues to whether or not they can trust a stranger?

A)Whether or not there are broken windows visible.
B)The location where they meet and the appearance of the stranger.
C)Whether there is a police station nearby.
D)Whether they have read about numerous crimes in the area.

Question 25

Not allowing the homeless to sleep in parks and other public areas can be seen as…

A)favoring the rights of individuals over the rights of the collective.
B)furthering the "broken windows" approach.
C)criminalizing poverty.
D)developing an ecology of fear.

Question 26

Who coined the phrases the "ecology of fear" and the "militarization of public space"?

A)Emile Durkheim
B)Jane Jacobs
C)Mike Davis
D)George Kelling

Question 27

In his book Ecology of Fear, Mike Davis uses Burgess's concentric zone model to represent areas in Los Angeles in terms of ________ as the underlying factor.

A)fear
B)cosmopolitanism
C)militarization
D)surveillance

Question 28

Mike Davis argues that older liberal attempts to control urban areas, which tried to balance repression with reform, have been replaced by…

A)greater attempts at rehabilitation of the poor.
B)a concerted government attempt to reduce homelessness.
C)programs that enable the homeless to sleep and hang out in urban parks.
D)open social warfare pitting the interests of the middle class against the welfare of the urban poor.

Question 29

A city that uses "broken windows" policing to control the behavior of those seen as violating the code of civility would be what Neil Smith calls a ________ city.

A)draconian
B)revanchist
C)militarized
D)fear

Question 30

As part of their enforcement policies, many cities have recently stepped up levels of…

A)surveillance of their streets.
B)policing in middle-class neighborhoods.
C)ecologizing of fear.
D)support for decriminalizing some drugs.

Question 31

One ironic aspect of the detection of the possible terrorist incident in Times Square in 2010 was that it was _________, which probably prevented a catastrophe.

A)the prevalence of surveillance cameras
B)the diligence of police officers
C)the diligence of a street vendor, a "neighborhood character"
D)just dumb luck

Question 32

Sampson and Raudenbush carried out the study which led them to question the basic assumptions of the "broken windows" theory in…

A)Boston.
B)Detroit.
C)Chicago.
D)Los Angeles.

Question 33

Sampson and Raudenbush's research indicated that which of the following lead to social disorder and crime?

A)the extent of neighborhood orderliness
B)concentrated poverty and low "collective efficacy"
C)high levels of "collective efficacy
D)low levels of surveillance in the community

Question 34

"Collective efficacy" refers to…

A)the ability of neighbors to work with the police to maintain the safety of their neighborhood.
B)a neighborhood where there is a very high level of concentrated poverty.
C)what happens to a neighborhood when it is pervaded by the ecology of fear caused by broken windows.
D)the capacity of neighbors to work together to strengthen their community.

Question 35

Sampson and Raudenbush suggest that perceptions of order and disorder in a neighborhood seem to be related to the…

A)racial, ethnic, and class composition of the neighborhood.
B)level of physical disorder in the neighborhood.
C)actual crime rate in the neighborhood.
D)level of observed disorder in the neighborhood.

Question 36

Sampson and Raudenbush believe that if the meaning of disorder is socially constructed then it is essential that…

A)the perceptions of disorder must be addressed.
B)police focus on residents who have social deficiencies.
C)the underlying causes of the perceptions of disorder must be addressed.
D)surveillance cameras be installed in neighborhoods with disorder.

Question 37

The simultaneous development of the suburbs and segregated housing projects in cities were due to…

A)the inevitable consequences of urban development after World War II.
B)processes that we do not yet understand very clearly.
C)the operations of the market in allocating resources.
D)both private practices and governmental policies to foster racial and class segregation in American communities, cities, and suburbs.

Question 38

In the United States, poor neighborhoods are usually located at the center of cities.In France, and especially Paris, low-income, high-rise projects…

A)are scattered throughout the city in both central city and suburban areas.
B)are also located in central city areas.
C)are mainly located in the suburbs.
D)do not exist.

Question 39

The low-income, hire-rise projects in Paris, with their small apartments clustered around lawns and playgrounds, social centers, and stores, were built based on the urban planning principles of…

A)Jane Jacobs.
B)Le Corbusier.
C)Rene Magritte.
D)Robert Moses.

Question 40

Today the suburban poor in the Paris projects are largely…

A)children and grandchildren of North African Muslim Arabs and West Africans.
B)immigrants from other European countries attracted to France's social safety net.
C)upwardly mobile rural French people who have moved to the city.
D)vanished, because of the booming French economy.

Question 41

There is less violent crime in French housing projects than in the United States.One reason for this is that…

A)the younger generation in France are not alienated from the larger society.
B)the ready availability of guns in France makes it a polite society.
C)strict gun-control laws make gun-related crimes rare.
D)the younger generation living in the French projects have access to good jobs.

Question 42

Which of these did NOT lead to the social protests and urban riots in France?

A)Children and grandchildren of North African Muslim Arabs and West Africans have little access to jobs because of the highly regulated French economy.
B)The "myth of national homogeneity" that denies ethnic diversity and discrimination.
C)Underlying problems of social and political isolation, due to joblessness, discrimination, and geographical isolation in the suburban housing projects.
D)The French government's wide-ranging affirmative action policies.

Question 43

According to Alain Touraine, the fundamental problem of integration in France is…

A)poverty.
B)symbolism.
C)rural to urban migration.
D)segregation.

Question 44

According to Hutter, the concern for social order in a world of strangers has always been an underlying issue in city life.

Question 45

Sociologist Fred Siegel argues that decriminalizing vice and other minor offenses frees the police to concentrate on major crimes.

Question 46

In his study of Atlantic City, historian Bryant Simon argues that the public realm in cities such as Atlantic City has always been about democracy and inclusion.

Question 47

Neil Smith refers to cities using "broken windows" policing as revanchist cities.

Question 48

Research by Sampson and Raudenbush confirmed the hypothesis of the "broken windows" theory that physical disorder is at the root of crime.

Question 49

Muslim neighborhoods are "safe havens" for terrorism that have led to the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and Kosher markets in France.

Question 50

What did Jane Jacobs see as the key to safe streets?

Question 51

Simon takes issue with the view that laments the decline of the public sphere.Why?

Question 52

Explain Wilson and Kelling's "broken windows" theory and at least one major criticism of it.

Question 53

Explain the distinction that Duneier makes between physical disorder and social disorder.Why is it important?

Question 54

What did their research lead Sampson and Raudenbush to conclude about the causes of crime? Did this support the "broken windows" theory?

Question 55

What does Wacquant identify as the different underlying causes of the living conditions in American ghettos and French banlieus?

Question 56

How does France's heavily regulated economy make the economic situation of Parisian housing dwellers more difficult?

Question 57

What is the French "myth of national homogeneity" and how does it make the situation of Arab and West African migrants and their descendants more difficult?

Question 58

Underlying themes of this chapter include the decline of civility in the public realm in recent years and theories that seek to explain that decline and the concomitant development of an ecology of fear.Explain the ideas of the decline of civility and the increase of disorder in the public realm, proposals to reduce that disorder, and criticisms of the ideas of a declining public sphere.

Question 59

The "broken windows" theory has been one of the most influential approaches developed to explain and reduce crime and disorder and thus to increase levels of social order.Explain the theory and, taking the major criticisms of it into account, give your assessment of it.

Question 60

Compare American ghettos to French banlieus.