Web tool could help measure subjective impressions of urban environments

CAMBRIDGE, Mass- The "broken-windows theory," which was propounded by two Harvard University researchers in the early 1980s, holds that urban "disorder"—visible signs of neglect, such as broken windows—actually promotes crime, initiating a vicious feedback loop. The theory was the basis for former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani's crackdown on petty crime, but it's come under sharp criticism from some social scientists. One of the difficulties in evaluating the theory is that it's hard to quantify something as subjective as visible disorder.

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