El Salvador approaches 600 homicides in May - 328 murders in NYC all of last year.

Kevin Baker recently published a fascinating story on 'Welcome to Fear City' – the inside story of New York's civil war, 40 years on for The Guardian.

Crime, and violent crime, had been increasing rapidly for years. The number of murders in the city had more than doubled over the past decade, from 681 in 1965 to 1,690 in 1975. Car thefts and assaults had also more than doubled in the same period, rapes and burglaries had more than tripled, while robberies had gone up an astonishing tenfold.

It’s difficult to convey just how precarious, and paranoid, life in New York felt around that time. Signs everywhere warned you to mind your valuables, and to keep neck chains or other jewellery tucked away while on the subway. You became alert to where anyone else might be in relation to you, augmented by quick looks over your shoulder that came to seem entirely natural.

I was born in 1974 in Queens so I don't exactly remember the rock bottom that Baker describes (at least I think that it was the rock bottom but not exactly by looking at the murder rate) but it is rather amazing the turnaround that New York has experienced in my lifetime. Depending upon what part of town you were driving through and what time of day you were traveling determined whether red lights and stop signs became optional.

"NYC murders" by Rooster of Doom - Own work. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NYC_murders.PNG#/media/File:NYC_murders.PNG

I don't believe that policing reforms adopted in the 1990s were the only cause of New York's rebound but I wouldn't be so quick to throw them out when looking to potential reforms that the countries of Northern Triangle could adopt.

Quartz

We need to somehow separate Giuliani the politician and shady consultant from broken windows policing. Here is what Mike Jenkins and I wrote in March.

Like zero tolerance approaches, broken windows policing is no substitute for equitable economic growth, good governance, criminal justice reform and increased spending on social programs. But it can serve as one avenue for preventing disorderly conditions from giving rise to more crime. Any police department hoping to use broken windows policing to create safer neighborhoods should be mindful of these challenges. However, this apprehension should not preclude the use of such proven policing methods. Latin American cities can benefit from broken windows policing, but only if they also integrate the lessons learned from its application in the U.S.

El Salvador will approach 600 homicides in May 2015. There were 328 murders in New York City all of last year.