Wiktionary
n. (alternative namewall of silence)
Wikipedia
A code of silence is a condition in effect when a person opts to withhold what is believed to be vital or important information voluntarily or involuntarily.
The code of silence is usually either kept because of threat of force, or danger to oneself, or being branded as a traitor or an outcast within the unit or organization as the experiences of the police whistleblower, Frank Serpico illustrates. Police are known to have a well-developed Blue Code of Silence. The code of silence was famously practiced in Irish-American neighborhoods in Boston, Massachusetts such as Charlestown, South Boston, and Somerville. Dan Goldberg and Danny Ben Moshe won Australia’s most prestigious journalism award, the Walkley Documentary Award for “Code of Silence,” which covers the fight for an investigation into allegations of child sex abuse at Yeshivah College, an all-male Orthodox Jewish school. It portrays the experiences of an Orthodox Jewish father and his son, after the son breaks the code of silence in Melbourne's Orthodox community and goes public with his story of being sexually abused as a student. An Orthodox Jewish concept of mesirah forbids Jews from reporting crimes to civil authorities and keeping them with the Jewish community instead.
A more famous example of the code of silence is Omertà (Italian: omertà, from the Latin: humilitas=humility or modesty), the Mafia code of silence.
Code of Silence is a 1985 American action film directed by Andrew Davis, and starring Chuck Norris, Henry Silva, Dennis Farina and Molly Hagan. The film was released in the United States on May 3, 1985.
It was an atypical film for Norris, whose previous ones had been known more for his martial-arts skill. A crime drama, it was filmed on location in Chicago with a few sub-plots. It features Norris as Sgt. Eddie Cusack, a streetwise plainclothes officer who takes down a crime czar responsible for officers being wounded in a botched drug raid. In the film's climax, Norris teams with a crime-fighting robot named "Prowler."
Dennis Farina was an actual Chicago police officer during the making of this film, moonlighting before becoming a full-time actor when cast in the leading role of Michael Mann's 1986 television series, Crime Story.
Usage examples of "code of silence".
He preserved the underworld code of silence, insisting that he had no idea of who did it.
I think you were incredibly stupid to pull that starburst thing, but you showed some guts later when you broke the code of silence.
A Mafia don brought up to follow the steel-jacketed code of silence, omerta, is a harebrained blabbermouth next to a resident of Bowman's Ridge who's got something not to say.
Vast numbers of sexual predation reports waited years until someone was willing to break the code of silence surrounding them.
Angelo Carmine looked to omerta, the Sicilian code of silence, to protect him.