crime
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GC: n

S: ICRC – https://bit.ly/2yFmqhK (last access: 5 August 2019); OHCHR – https://bit.ly/2NNGTuP (last access: 5 August 2019).

N: 1. From Latin crimen fault, accusation, crime.

2. Crime, the intentional commission of an act usually deemed socially harmful or dangerous and specifically defined, prohibited, and punishable under criminal law.

3. Most countries have enacted a criminal code in which all of the criminal law can be found, though English law—the source of many other criminal-law systems—remains uncodified. The definitions of particular crimes contained in a code must be interpreted in the light of many principles, some of which may not actually be expressed in the code itself.

4. Difference between crime, offense and delict. Offense is often minor, whereas the term crime never excludes felonies. Given that the laws are fundamentally divided into two -as public laws and civil laws- one can see that the term crime is an exclusively public law term by its nature; a crime is a criminal wrong. Whereas offense in many jurisdictions may be subject of civil law as well. While tort is a definite civil law term and crime is a definite public law term, the term civil offense as a civil law term may refer to torts and the term public offense refers to what we call crime. Any damaging act that is against the public duties may be considered a crime, whether or not it is defined so by applicable laws, whereas calling it an offense requires a clear provision with the exact definition in law. Delict is Latin for tort. Since Roman Law is source of the Continental Civil Law, continental lawyers (such as Turkish lawyers) may prefer using the English term delict, unlike the lawyers of common law.

5. Juveniles who commit crimes have legal protections that include lighter sentencing than adults would receive in the same circumstances.

6. Throughout the medieval period it was believed that the only way to keep order was to make sure that the people were scared of the punishments given for crimes committed. For this reason all crimes from stealing to murder had harsh punishments.

7. Depending on context, the Spanish term crimen can also be translated as felony and murder.

8. Collocations:
– illegal act:

  • Adj. appalling, awful, barbaric, barbarous, bloody, brutal, despicable, dreadful, grave, great, heinous, horrible, horrific, serious, terrible, vicious; big, major; lesser, minor, petty; real; violent | non-violent | perfect; notorious; capital; indictable | alleged; unsolved | copycat; motiveless | victimless | white-collar | drug-related | sex/sexual | war | political | terrorist.
  • Verb + crime: carry out, commit | report Many crimes are never reported to the police.
  • Crime + Verb: involve sth crimes involving firearms | be punishable by sth crimes punishable by death.
  • Prep. crime against, crimes against humanity.
  • Phrases: a crime of passion/violence, the scene of the crime No weapon was found at the scene of the crime.

– illegal activity in general:

  • Adj. serious | petty | violent | non-violent | recorded | unrecorded | growing, mounting, rising | drug-related | middle-class, working-class, etc. | white-collar | business, corporate | organized | juvenile, youth | international, local, regional | rural, urban | car, computer, property, street | sex/sexual.
  • Verb + crime: carry out, commit | combat, fight, tackle | beat, crack (informal) | deter, prevent, stop | control, cut, reduce | detect, investigate | solve | punish | cause | be driven to, turn to.
  • Crime + Verb: double, increase, rise.
  • Crime + Noun: figures, level, rate, statistics | control, prevention | problem, wave | squad a senior detective with the serious crime squad | syndicate | fiction, novel, series, story | reporter, writer.
  • Prases: a crackdown on crime | crime and disorder, crime and punishment, fear of crime | an increase in crime, a life of crime | sb’s partner in crime, a victim of crime.

9. Cultural Interrelation: We can mention the dystopian novel and cautionary tale Nineteen Eighty-Four (also published as 1984) written, between 1947 and 1949, by English novelist, essayist, and critic George Orwell (1903-1950). “The thought police would get him just the same. He had committed—would have committed, even if he had never set pen to paper—the essential crime that contained all others in itself. Thought crime, they called it. Thought crime was not a thing that could be concealed forever. You might dodge successfully for a while, even for years, but sooner or later they were bound to get you.” (p. 19)

We can also mention the novel Crime (2008) written by Irvine Welsh.

S: 1. MW – https://bit.ly/2GN7NNV (last access: 5 August 2019). 2 & 3. EncBrit – https://bit.ly/2MK8Wtc (last access: 21 5 August 2019). 4. Bu – https://bit.ly/2GJcBDN (last access: 5 August 2019). 5. CDN – https://bit.ly/2yFoMxe (last access: 5 August 2019). 6. HOTN – https://bit.ly/2DWqVa0 (last access: 5 August 2019). 7. COSNAUTAS/LIBRO ROJO (last access: 5 August 2019); FCB. 8. OCD – https://bit.ly/2YL3mJP (last access: 30 October 2016). 9. SPRW – https://bit.ly/2Zwt0mL (last access: 30 October 2016); GR – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19336273-crime (last access: 16 November 2024).

SYN:
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CR: crime against humanity, criminology, forensic medicine, forensics, forensic science, homicide, intent, medical examiner, murder, testimony, war crime.