This book attempts to explain the rise of "quality of life" policing in the context of broader shifts in criminal justice politics.

In Chapter 1 I review the theoretical debates about the rejection of more restorative and rehabilitative ways of dealing with crime. This review deals with the debates between neoconservative approaches such as James Q. Wilson and George Kelling's "broken windows" theory, which argues that crime and disorder are products of unregulated individualism stemming from the liberal excesses of the 1960's and left analysis by David Garland and Jock Young, who argue that anomic individualism is a result of economic restructuring.

In Chapter 2 I describe the origins of the "quality of life" concept and show how it was transformed from a largely progressive notion about improving the lives of the poor and marginal to a conservative shibboleth that justified the exclusion of those viewed to be a source of social problems.

In Chapter 6 I have an extensive discussion of the origins of "quality of life' policing in New York City. While most popular commentators give credit to Rudolph Giuliani and William Bratton for inventing and implementing this form of policing, I show that in fact it was well on its way under the Dinkins administration in response to broad community and business pressures to treat disorder as a more serious problem. Prior to this period the NYPD utilized more of a professional crime fighting model that paid little attention to order maintenance, focusing instead on fast 911 response times and the effectiveness of specialized units in going after felonies.