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Transforming probation through leadership: The “broken windows” model.

Reinventing Probation Council, Johanna
June 4, 2015

Source: New York: Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, Center for Civic Innovation; and Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, Robert A. Fox Leadership Program.

The “broken windowsâ€? metaphor, introduced by Wilson and Kelling in 1982, indicates that small disorders and breakdowns in civic norms, if not addressed and remedied, lead to larger social disorders and serious crimes. In keeping with this metaphor, a new community-policing paradigm has emerged. It emphasizes a proactive, problem-solving, order-maintaining role for the police. In this perspective, citizens are partners in crime control as well as customers of police services. This document represents an initiative to employ the “broken windowsâ€? model to reform probation. It contains a framework and rationale for this approach, comprehensive strategies, and examples of programs to illustrate elements of the “broken windows probationâ€? model in practice. The document also includes steps for those in the probation field who may want to reinvent their own agency in terms of this model.

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