broken window

English

Noun

broken window (plural broken windows)

  1. Under broken windows theory, anything that signals an area is unmonitored or unworthy of proper behavior, leading to crime.
    • 1998, William J. Bratton, Peter Knobler, Turnaround: How America's Top Cop Reversed the Crime Epidemic, page 152:
      Fare evasion was the biggest broken window in the transit system.
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