[originaltext] Let’s talk about a social condition that many people might be

Let’s talk about a social condition that many people might be concerned about today. There are a few that I wanted to touch on, but the first one is the one I mentioned in the introduction—Crime in New York City. Maybe we can go into those little triggers, because I find this really interesting, because we’re talking about such a big change that takes place being triggered by very small things. And what do you think some of those were? [23]Well, I’m very impressed by this idea called "the broken window theory" which is an idea George Kellin has put forth in New England. He’s argued for some time that criminals and criminal behavior are acutely sensitive to environmental cues and he uses the example: the broken window. If there is a car sitting on the street with a broken window, it is an invitation to someone to break the car. Why? Because a broken window on a car symbolizes the fact that no one cares about the car, no one is in charge, no one is watching. Well, Kellin came along and said: "well, no, no, a criminal is like all of us, someone who is acutely sensitive to what’s going on in the environment and by making subtle changes in the environment, you can encourage and induce much more socially responsible behavior." Well, in New York, we have the perfect test case of that idea. [24]It starts in the subway. You know in the early 1980s, they decided to clean up the subway. Well, how did they do it? The subway was a complete mess. Right? It was. Crime rates were going through the roof. They bring in a man who is a big disciple of this idea, of broken windows. And what does he do? Well, the first thing he does is he picks up all the litter. The second thing he does is he cleans up the graffiti and the third thing he does is he says from now on no one will ever jump a turn style in a NYC subway station again. He puts cops by the turn styles and if someone jumps, he arrests them. Everybody said he was crazy, but you’ve got a subway system where people are killing and robbing and assaulting and raping each other, and what do you do? [25] Once they put those three changes in place, the subway starts to come around really quite dramatically.
23. What does "the broken window theory" mean?
24. When did New York City decide to clean up the subway?
25. Why did the subway start to come around quite dramatically?