The novel is set in Harlem, New York during a period known for its “broken windows” policing policy. Rudy Giuliani, a former prosecutor, was the city’s mayor doing this time, and his administration prioritized vigorously prosecuting relatively low-level street crime. The broken windows theory posits that visible signs of crime—no matter how small—are precursors and catalysts of more serious, violent crimes. However, this theory has been widely debated by criminologists and social policy experts, some of whom argue that the causal connection between enacting broken windows policy and reductions in crime cannot be proven.

Monster notably does not depict a minor crime, however, but a murder committed during a robbery. Myers depicts Harlem as a neighborhood where the threat of violence is real and born out of social dynamics. There is a reference in the book to the diminishment of public assistance, which was a result of the welfare reforms undertaken during the Clinton administration. These changes stiffened the requirements for relief payments, increasing the need for financial resources just as New York City’s cracked down on crimes committed primarily by the disenfranchised. Myers addresses these changes in the book’s end matter. He notes that the Harlem of his youth, in the 1940s and 50s, had changed dramatically by the time he wrote Monster.