Broken windows effect

Many experts consider that reporting is essential for developing a successful workplace violence prevention program (1,2). Health care workers can learn from the reported violent episodes both to perform early intervention and to protect themselves. However, we doubt that whether the public and patients will be affected by the workplace violence reporting. It is well known that the main channel for people to obtain this information is the media. If the media reported the violent events partially or non-objectively, the potential perpetrators would receive a false signal to imitate the behavior reported in the past. Workplace violence could spread like an infection, which is so-called broken windows effect.