Broken windows policing is a theory of policing that links disorder and incivility within a community to subsequent occurrences of serious crime. The theory states that visible signs of crime and civil disorder, such as broken windows, vandalism, loitering, public drinking, jaywalking, and transportation fare evasion, create an urban environment that promotes even more crime and disorder. Policing these misdemeanors will help create an ordered and lawful society in which all citizens feel safe and crime rates, including violent crime rates, are low.

Broken windows policing is sometimes described as a "zero tolerance" policing style, including in some academic studies. However, its creators, George Kelling and William Bratton, have said that minor offenders should receive lenient punishment. Broken windows policing has sometimes become associated with zealotry, which has led to critics suggesting that it encourages discriminatory behavior. Some campaigns such as Black Lives Matter have called for an end to broken windows policing.

Although different people have different approaches to the implementation of broken windows, the end goal is the same: crime reduction. Agencies have applied broken windows policing in a variety of ways, some more closely following the Wilson and Kelling model than others. Broken windows policing is seen by many as a way to effect change quickly and with minimal expense by merely altering the police crime-control strategy. However, one line of criticism is that there is little empirical evidence that disorder, when left unchallenged, causes crime. To validate the theory in its entirety, it must be shown that disorder causes fear, that fear causes a breakdown of social controls, and that this breakdown of social controls in turn causes crime.