broken windows theory
E243237
Broken windows theory is a criminological concept proposing that visible signs of disorder and minor offenses, if left unaddressed, encourage more serious crime and antisocial behavior.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| broken windows theory canonical | 3 |
| Broken Windows article | 1 |
| “Broken Windows: The Police and Neighborhood Safety” | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2182476 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: broken windows theory Context triple: [James Q. Wilson, notableTheory, broken windows theory]
-
A.
"Crime: Its Cause and Treatment"
"Crime: Its Cause and Treatment" is a 1922 non-fiction work by American lawyer Clarence Darrow that examines the social, economic, and psychological roots of criminal behavior and critiques traditional approaches to punishment.
-
B.
Peelian principles of policing
The Peelian principles of policing are a set of foundational guidelines for modern law enforcement that emphasize crime prevention, public cooperation, and the idea that police legitimacy depends on maintaining the trust and consent of the community.
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C.
Sky Crime
Sky Crime is a British pay television channel from Sky dedicated to true crime documentaries and series.
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D.
Race City USA
Race City USA is the nickname for Mooresville, North Carolina, a town widely recognized as a major hub for NASCAR teams and motorsports industries.
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E.
Slums and Suburbs
Slums and Suburbs is an influential work by educator James B. Conant examining educational inequality and the social divide between impoverished urban areas and more affluent suburban communities in mid-20th-century America.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: broken windows theory Target entity description: Broken windows theory is a criminological concept proposing that visible signs of disorder and minor offenses, if left unaddressed, encourage more serious crime and antisocial behavior.
-
A.
"Crime: Its Cause and Treatment"
"Crime: Its Cause and Treatment" is a 1922 non-fiction work by American lawyer Clarence Darrow that examines the social, economic, and psychological roots of criminal behavior and critiques traditional approaches to punishment.
-
B.
Peelian principles of policing
The Peelian principles of policing are a set of foundational guidelines for modern law enforcement that emphasize crime prevention, public cooperation, and the idea that police legitimacy depends on maintaining the trust and consent of the community.
-
C.
Sky Crime
Sky Crime is a British pay television channel from Sky dedicated to true crime documentaries and series.
-
D.
Race City USA
Race City USA is the nickname for Mooresville, North Carolina, a town widely recognized as a major hub for NASCAR teams and motorsports industries.
-
E.
Slums and Suburbs
Slums and Suburbs is an influential work by educator James B. Conant examining educational inequality and the social divide between impoverished urban areas and more affluent suburban communities in mid-20th-century America.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (51)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
criminological theory
ⓘ
social theory ⓘ |
| appliedIn |
public space management
ⓘ
transportation systems policing ⓘ urban crime prevention ⓘ |
| assumes |
offenders interpret disorder as a sign of low risk of sanction
ⓘ
residents interpret disorder as a sign of weak social control ⓘ |
| coreConcept |
disorder
ⓘ
informal social control ⓘ neighborhood stability ⓘ order maintenance ⓘ signal of social norms ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| criticizedFor |
conflating disorder with serious crime
ⓘ
disproportionate impact on minority communities ⓘ encouraging over-criminalization of poverty ⓘ potential to justify aggressive policing of minor offenses ⓘ weak empirical support in some studies ⓘ |
| exampleOfDisorder |
broken windows
ⓘ
fare evasion ⓘ graffiti ⓘ loitering ⓘ public drinking ⓘ |
| field |
criminology
ⓘ
sociology ⓘ urban studies ⓘ |
| hasAuthor |
George L. Kelling
ⓘ
James Q. Wilson ⓘ |
| hasCritic |
Bernard E. Harcourt
ⓘ
Robert J. Sampson ⓘ Stephen D. Mastrofski ⓘ |
| hasSupportFrom |
some police practitioners
ⓘ
some urban policymakers ⓘ |
| inception | 1982 ⓘ |
| influenced |
New York City policing in the 1990s
ⓘ
community policing strategies ⓘ order-maintenance policing ⓘ zero-tolerance policing ⓘ |
| mainClaim |
tolerating minor offenses leads to escalation of antisocial behavior
ⓘ
visible signs of disorder encourage more serious crime ⓘ |
| policyImplication |
maintaining physical order can prevent serious crime
ⓘ
police should address minor offenses promptly ⓘ visible enforcement of norms can reinforce informal social control ⓘ |
| publicationDate | March 1982 ⓘ |
| publicationTitle | Broken Windows ⓘ |
| publishedIn | The Atlantic Monthly ⓘ |
| relatedConcept |
collective efficacy
ⓘ
defensible space theory ⓘ order-maintenance policing ⓘ situational crime prevention ⓘ social disorganization theory ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: broken windows theory Description of subject: Broken windows theory is a criminological concept proposing that visible signs of disorder and minor offenses, if left unaddressed, encourage more serious crime and antisocial behavior.
Referenced by (5)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject surface form:
James Q. Wilson
this entity surface form:
Broken Windows article
this entity surface form:
“Broken Windows: The Police and Neighborhood Safety”