A motor vehicle door lock or the like has a housing (1) or a lock bearing plate, a rotary latch (2) with a jaw (3) for a locking wedge (4) or lock bolt and a pawl (7) for locking the rotary latch (2) in a locking position which corresponds to the closed motor vehicle door. Several complementary measures are proposed which can be applied together or separately to optimise the locking elements - rotary latch (2) and pawl (7). A differentiated positioning of the rotary latch (2) and pawl (7) is particularly significant. The material, shape and/or mounting of the swivelling axis (10) of the rotary latch (2) or of the swivelling axis (20) of the pawl (7) are designed for normal operation conditions. However, in the event of tearing up forces which are considerably higher than the normal operation conditions (crash), the rotary latch (2) or pawl (7) can be displaced in such a way that a substantial proportion of the tearing up forces can be absorbed by the supporting area of a recess (11) which contains the rotary latch (2) or of a recess (21) which contains the pawl (7).