Pogled u tuđe dvorište kroz „polomljeni prozor“
A Look into the Extraneous Yard Through a „Broken Window“

Summary/Abstract: At the beginning of the 80s two American sociologist launched a theory after which if on one building only one broken window remains unrepaired for a longer time that will be a signal and message which will soon lead to that that also all the other windows are broken, destroyed. It is a signal, a message that the word is about something which is abandoned and rusty, something about which nobody takes care so that there is nobody who would sanction the (petty)-offensive behaviour. The theory of the „broken window“ became soon very popular and from it derived the „strategy of zero tollerance“ after which the police should react very decisively and strictly precisely in the minor violations, like vandalism, graphite-writing, vagabondism, begging, in order to prevent something bigger and more dangerous. Such a strategy of zero tolerance was proclaimed in New York and really, since the mid 90s there is an appreciable decrease of the rate of criminality. However, many critics say that the word is about coincidence, that the strategy of zero tollerance is on the trace of a rightist non democratic politic of treatening of the human rights, and precisely of those marginal citizens which are socially most threatened. The author of this article considers that a consistent application and copying of such a strategy and politic in the Serbian conditions, because of that but also because of many other things would be very problematic, so that he does not plead for its application in Serbia, but he considers that it is useful to „take a look“ into the „extraneous yard“ now and then and to perceive how and what is done in other societes also on the field of struggle against crminality. Jovan Ćirić considers that that does not have to mean a non-critical transcription of foreign solutions, but it can be very useful. The Institute of comparative law has precisely been doing this in all its 55 years, above all through its Journal „Foreign Legal Life“ it perceives the experiences of others, it looks into the extraneous yard in different ways, also through a broken window.

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