broken window

noun

Under broken windows theory, anything that signals an area is unmonitored or unworthy of proper behavior, leading to crime.

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Meanings

nounbroken window (plural broken windows)

plural broken windows

  1. Under broken windows theory, anything that signals an area is unmonitored or unworthy of proper behavior, leading to crime.

    Fare evasion was the biggest broken window in the transit system.

    1998, William J. Bratton, Peter Knobler, Turnaround: How America's Top Cop Reversed the Crime Epidemic, page 152
Cite this entry
APA

broken window. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/broken%20window

MLA

“broken window.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/broken%20window. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “broken window,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/broken%20window.

Source: broken window on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.