By studying four neighborhoods in San Salvador, Hare debunks the "broken windows" theory of crime fighting to offer what some areas in one of the most dangerous cities in the world have found for themselves--that physical order is far less effective than "citizen security" via social cohesion (knowing all your neighbors, not tolerating threats from within, cooperating with the army and police rather than having an anti-snitching culture). However, there's a catch: it can't be scaled up, and it makes each neighborhood--whether gang controlled or peaceful and prosperous, its own liminal bubble unwelcoming to tourists and outsiders, making even a trip across neighborhoods to a school fraught with bad possibilities.