► crime a dishonest, violent, or immoral action that can be punished by law: The woman insisted that she had not committed any crime. This is a serious crime – thousands of dollars were stolen.
► theft the crime of stealing things: The rate of car theft has increased this year.
► robbery the crime of stealing money or valuable things from a bank, store, etc.: There was another armed robbery at the bank.
► burglary the crime of going into someone’s home in order to steal money or valuable things: We had an alarm system installed to prevent burglary.
► shoplifting the crime of taking things from a store without paying for them: The store reports all cases of shoplifting to the police.
► larceny formal the crime of stealing things. Used in legal language: Police arrested the purse snatcher and charged him with larceny.
► mugging the crime of attacking and robbing someone in public: Most muggings occur on dark streets.
► assault the crime of attacking someone physically: The man who beat him was charged with assault with a deadly weapon.
► rape the crime of forcing someone to have sex: The rape occurred when the woman was walking home at night.
► murder the crime of deliberately killing someone: For a killing to be called murder, it had to be intentional.
► manslaughter the crime of killing someone illegally but not deliberately: He was convicted of manslaughter for killing his brother in the fight.
► homicide formal the crime of killing someone. Used in legal language: Police are treating the death as a case of homicide.
► drug dealing the crime of selling illegal drugs: Drug dealing is a real problem in some neighborhoods.
► fraud the crime of deceiving people in order to get money or things: He used fraud to get people to invest in the fake company.
► forgery the crime of illegally copying official documents, money, etc.: The group was involved in the forgery of land contracts.
► counterfeiting the crime of copying money to deceive people: Color photocopiers have made counterfeiting easier.
► vandalism the crime of deliberately damaging things, especially public property: Two teenagers were arrested for vandalism at the school.
► arson the crime of deliberately making something burn, especially a building: Investigators believe that arson was the cause of the fire.