ThE TiPpiNg PoINt

Recently we were asked to read 'The Tipping Point' by Malcom Gladwell. The book is about how small changes can completely alter an outcome! For example by employing the Broken Windows Theory, the idea that minor crimes lead to major ones and that if you tackle such things as graffiti the serious crimes will lessen. This was proved to be true when the scheme was tried out in New York City during one of their worst crime epidemics and the crime rate fell dramatically and rapidly. This shows how important context can be. A point related to this that i found particularly interesting was the idea that it was better for a child to grow up in a bad family and a good neighbourhood, than a bad neighbourhood and a good family! There were many other interesting sections such as the one on teen smoking and the 'Stickiness Factor'. The 'Stickiness Factor' is something that is mentioned a lot as Gladwell attempts to find out what makes things stick. What makes something tip into fashionable or become a global sensation. He explains there are many reasons and often it take a combination of these things, such as context that makes things tip. 'The Tipping Point' is a challenging but thought provoking book, which encourages the reader to consider the minor factors that spark major trends.


This is my mind map on the whole of 'The Tipping Point'.

This is my mind map on my favourite section- The Power of Context.

Harvard Bibliography on The Power of Context pages 133-141

Fletcher, G P 1988, A Crime of Self Defense, Free Press, New York.

Rubin, L 1986, Quiet Rage: Bernie Goetz in a Time of Madness, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York.

Both of these sources are detailed accounts of the events that unfolded on the 22^nd of December 1984. Gladwell has included many quotes from the sources to set the scene, some from witnesses and some from Goetz himself. It is interesting to hear an accurate description of some of the things said. Obviously these sources are extremely detailed as Gladwell describes Goetz’s parting movements. ‘He walked through the doorway at the front of the car, unhooked the safety chain, and jumped down onto the tracks, disappearing into the dark of the tunnel.’  I think these references were probably very beneficial to the author when later trying to asses Goetz motivations for reaching his tipping point. They also gave the reader more insight.

Massing, M 1998, The Blue Revolution, New York Review of Books, New York.

This book focuses primarily on New York crime statistics. It is interesting to read the true extent of the crime problems in the city. It also creates an effective in depth picture of the subway conditions and of the vast scale of the epidemic. Often statistics confuse matters but in this case I find them very valuable.

Bratton, W 1998, Turnaround: How America’s Top Cop Reversed the Crime Epidemic, Random House, New York.

Gladwell uses this source as evidence of an outsider’s view of the subway network. ‘It was like going into the transit version of Dante’s Inferno.’ I think this is beneficial as Bratton uses descriptive language to take the reader through his experience step by step. Also I feel it is significant  that he is not a New Yorker and perhaps gives a more reliable point of view, unlike residents who may have grown to accept the conditions. I think this was a well chosen quotation that has some shock factor.

Gladwell, M 1996 ‘The Tipping Point’, The New Yorker, 3 June p. 32-39.

Bratton, W & Andrews, W 1999, ‘What We’ve Learned About Policing’ City Journal, Spring p. 25.

In this section Gladwell is considering some of the reasons that crime has declined so rapidly. This source seems to have been useful in explaining this from the Polices point of view. He is listing things that could have been factors but comments that the Police believe there was ‘something else’.

Kelling, G L & Coles, C M 1996, Fixing Broken Windows, Touchstone, New York.

This source is used to illustrate the Broken Windows Theory. This is the theory that lesser crimes inevitably lead to more serious ones. Gladwell has quoted a section of their book to reiterate the concept that crime is contagious. It is also a valuable source as it was written by criminologists who would have spent years studying the inner workings of criminals.