Please listen to the NPR podcast on broken windows policing under Lesson 1 learning materials and answer one of the below questions.
https://www.npr.org/2016/11/01/500104506/broken-wi…
The broken windows model of policing was first described in 1982 in a seminal article by Wilson and Kelling. Briefly, the model focuses on the importance of
disorder (e.g., broken windows) in generating and sustaining more serious crime. Disorder is not directly linked to serious crime; instead, disorder leads to
increased fear and withdrawal from residents, which then allows more serious crime to move in because of decreased levels of informal social control. This
theory suggests that the police can play a key role in disrupting this process. If they focus in on disorder and less serious crime in neighborhoods that have
not yet been overtaken by serious crime, they can help reduce fear and resident withdrawal. This theory further suggests that promoting higher levels of
informal social control will help residents themselves take control of their neighborhood and prevent serious crime from infiltrating.
In NYC, this meant the police were doing things like arresting panhandlers (beggars), cracking down on sex shops, arresting people selling loose cigarettes
(Eric Gardner, who also said “I can’t breathe” before NYC police killed him in 2014, was being arrested for selling loose cigarettes), randomly stopping
people in “problem” neighborhoods to check them for guns (also called Stop and Frisk, which was declared an unconstitutional violation of people’s civil
rights), and arresting graffiti artists.
Let’s say you are a researcher who wants to study the relationship between social disorder and violent crime. How do you decide/define (in research terms
operationalize) what is disorder? Would selling loose cigarettes and loose undershirts on the street or graffiti on the street be social disorder? For
instance, if you were living in a neighborhood where there are no stores and you have to travel an hour to buy an undershirt, would you consider a person
selling loose shirts or loose cigarettes on the street corner as a sign of social order or social disorder?
The podcast talks about the things that policymakers and social scientists consider being signs of social disorder. The podcast also talks about the things
that policymakers and social scientists do not consider to be signs of social disorder (such as complaints about police and use of force). What will change if
as researchers we consider use of force and complaints against the police as a sign of disorder?
Sample Solution
Dante Alighieri played a critical role in the literature world through his poem Divine Comedy that was written in the 14th century. The poem contains Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is a description of the nine circles of torment that are found on the earth. It depicts the realms of the people that have gone against the spiritual values and who, instead, have chosen bestial appetite, violence, or fraud and malice. The nine circles of hell are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed and wrath. Others are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dante’s Inferno in the perspective of its portrayal of God’s image and the justification of hell.
In this epic poem, God is portrayed as a super being guilty of multiple weaknesses including being egotistic, unjust, and hypocritical. Dante, in this poem, depicts God as being more human than divine by challenging God’s omnipotence. Additionally, the manner in which Dante describes Hell is in full contradiction to the morals of God as written in the Bible. When god arranges Hell to flatter Himself, He commits egotism, a sin that is common among human beings (Cheney, 2016). The weakness is depicted in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell where, for instance, God sends those who do not worship Him to Hell. This implies that failure to worship Him is a sin.
God is also depicted as lacking justice in His actions thus removing the godly image. The injustice is portrayed by the manner in which the sodomites and opportunists are treated. The opportunists are subjected to banner chasing in their lives after death followed by being stung by insects and maggots. They are known to having done neither good nor bad during their lifetimes and, therefore, justice could have demanded that they be granted a neutral punishment having lived a neutral life. The sodomites are also punished unfairly by God when Brunetto Lattini is condemned to hell despite being a good leader (Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). While he commited sodomy, God chooses to ignore all the other good deeds that Brunetto did.
Finally, God is also portrayed as being hypocritical in His actions, a sin that further diminishes His godliness and makes Him more human. A case in point is when God condemns the sin of egotism and goes ahead to commit it repeatedly. Proverbs 29:23 states that “arrogance will bring your downfall, but if you are humble, you will be respected.” When Slattery condemns Dante’s human state as being weak, doubtful, and limited, he is proving God’s hypocrisy because He is also human (Verdicchio, 2015). The actions of God in Hell as portrayed by Dante are inconsistent with the Biblical literature. Both Dante and God are prone to making mistakes, something common among human beings thus making God more human.
To wrap it up, Dante portrays God is more human since He commits the same sins that humans commit: egotism, hypocrisy, and injustice. Hell is justified as being a destination for victims of the mistakes committed by God. The Hell is presented as being a totally different place as compared to what is written about it in the Bible. As a result, reading through the text gives an image of God who is prone to the very mistakes common to humans thus ripping Him off His lofty status of divine and, instead, making Him a mere human. Whether or not Dante did it intentionally is subject to debate but one thing is clear in the poem: the misconstrued notion of God is revealed to future generations.
References
Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). Dante’s inferno: Seven deadly sins in scientific publishing and how to avoid them. Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, 267.
Cheney, L. D. G. (2016). Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno: A Comparative Study of Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Cultural and Religious Studies, 4(8), 487.
Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.
