Discussion Questions on Chapter 3. (1&3)

1.Bernie Goetz was a thirty years old man who lived in New York City. He was recorded as the sensitive crime murderer in 1984. The story started when Goetz went into subway station in December 22, 1984. He sat next to four young black boys. Those black boys acted playfully to Goetz and annoyed him by asking “How are ya? With suspected eyes” Goetz began to feel unsecure and doubted what those black boys wanted from him. One of four black boys named Canty then asked Goetz for five dollars. Meanwhile, Goetz was really scared and suddenly pulled out his short gun shooting four black boys. Some people viewed Goetz as a hero who protected people in the subway when finally four black boys all had criminal records. In fact, Goetz is a cold-blooded murderer because he couldn’t assume people by their appearance and actions. Even though he felt dangerous around those black boys, he shouldn’t have shot them. It was a wrong cognitive mind of him that judge people in a short time and used violent to protect himself. He was considered as a sensitive murderer, ignorant and selfish because of his thin-slicing. According to Gladwell on page 138, he stated”epidemic of violence” which means people commit crimes depend on their set of behaviors and sensitive conditions. Base on Goetz’s crime, he was believed to epidemic crime that could put himself in own safety and effect of his growth up environment. Gladwell also mentioned that “And if someone wakes us up to tell us something, we automatically assume the news is going to be urgent. Therefore, Goetz’s shooting was the terrible set of behavior that concluded people spontaneously.


3.Broken Window Theory is the function of assuming something was happened before and conclude the sequence. It is known as the inevitable result of disorder in regard of Wilson and Kelling’s idea. I absolutely agree that this is true that majority of crimes occur because of circumstances and condition of places. It is the sense of intimate clue to crime committers that broken and messy places are unprotected, so they can take on actions. It is important that crime is the theory of epidemic as Gladwell claimed. Then broken window is considered as contagious. As Gladwell stated on page 141 “It can start with a broken window and spread to an entire community”. It showed that people live near community with broken window can be in danger of crimes. For example, there is a place in Philadelphia called Logan which was full of aggressive gangsters and crimes before. Logan looks unclean and has few damaged buildings. I heard many years ago gangsters always shot and fought each other in this community and crimes occurred consequently. However, community in Logan now is better and safety to live. According to Logan’s outlook, people know obviously that it is not a safety place even it was only in the past condition. In this case, it is supported Wilson and Kelling’s idea that more serious crimes happen at aggressive areas-Broken Windows.