Decades ago, researchers introduced a new theory of policing. It's called "broken windows" and is seen by many as a cure-all for crime. But the idea is often used in ways its creators never intended.

The problem is, it wasn’t a broken window that enticed onlookers to join the fray; it was the spectacle of faculty and students destroying an Oldsmobile in the middle of Stanford’s campus.

Broken Windows and other crime prevention policies were seen as a much needed, tough-on-crime stance in response to high incidents of violent crime in the 1980s and early 1990s.