Meaning & use
shattered windows
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Meanings
nounpluralfigurative
An idea in policing that small signs of disorder, such as broken glass or graffiti, lead to more serious crime if nobody fixes them.
Grammar: Used as a fixed phrase, often before another noun: the shattered windows approach.
Patterns
- the shattered windows theory
- the shattered windows approach
- use shattered windows policing
The mayor defended the shattered windows strategy, arguing that repairing small damage quickly keeps neighborhoods safe.
Critics say the shattered windows idea unfairly targets poor communities rather than addressing real causes of crime.
nounplural
Windows that have been broken into many small pieces, usually by force.
Grammar: A literal plural noun phrase; the singular is a shattered window.
Patterns
- shattered windows after something
- repair shattered windows
- shattered windows and doors
After the storm, the shop was full of shattered windows and wet floors.
The explosion left shattered windows in every building along the street.
Common combinations
- the shattered windows theory
- Criminologists still debate the shattered windows theory today.
- shattered windows policing
- The department introduced shattered windows policing in the 1990s.
- repair shattered windows
- The city paid to repair shattered windows in the school.
- shattered windows and broken doors
- The abandoned house had shattered windows and broken doors.
Synonyms and how they differ
- broken windows
- The far more common form of the same idea; use this if you want the standard name of the theory.
- zero tolerance
- A related policing policy that punishes even minor offenses strictly, but it does not mention the glass imagery.
Word family
- shatter verb
- To break suddenly into many small pieces.
- shattering adjective
- Very shocking or upsetting, as in shattering news.
Commonly confused: shattered windows or smashed windows?
shattered windows vs smashed windows
Both describe glass broken by force, but smashed windows is only literal, while shattered windows can also name the policing theory.
Practice
Which sentence uses "shattered windows" in its specialist criminology sense?
Choose one answer.
Only option 1 refers to the policing idea about small signs of disorder; the other three describe glass that is literally broken.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “shattered windows”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.