Paradise Lost: White Flight and the Construction of a Criminogenic Origin Myth

Abstract

Purpose

By making the explicit connections between the processes of urban-suburban racial transitions and Wilson and Kelling’s broken windows theory, this chapter proposes the linkage between concern for crime/disorder and anti-Blackness.

Methodology/approach

The contention is supported by recounting and highlighting key historical dynamics and their congruency with the original broken windows treatise; bringing in relevant research regarding racial coding and assumptions; surveys on residential mobility; and theoretical frameworks on colorblind racism.

Findings

The enduring popularity of broken windows theory is likely more due to its colorblind explanations of the suburbanization of urban Whites than to the explanatory merit of the theory. To explain the origin of such (problematic) concepts as “urban decay” and “crime-ridden communities,” the theory deflects concerns for determinative processes such as deindustrialization, integration, overpolicing, and historical anti-Blackness and provides a parable regarding a lack of vigilance in support of community norms, which in White communities have traditionally been segregationist. The moral of the parable is that “urban decay” is the result of Whites allowing desegregation to proceed after Brown v. Board.

Originality/value

This chapter provides a macro-discursive explanation for the popularity of broken windows theory and helps explain its centrality to the ongoing discussions regarding race, territorial and disorder policing, and practices such as stop-and-frisk.

Citation

Roussell, A. and Dunbar, J. (2016), "Paradise Lost: White Flight and the Construction of a Criminogenic Origin Myth", The Politics of Policing: Between Force and Legitimacy (Sociology of Crime, Law and Deviance, Vol. 21), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 219-236. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1521-613620160000021012