criminal codes
Laws defining offenses
Criminal codes are systematic compilations of laws defining crimes and their punishments within a jurisdiction.
A criminal code specifies what conduct constitutes an offense—theft, assault, fraud—and establishes penalties ranging from fines to imprisonment.
Most nations and states organize their criminal law into a single code: The criminal code was amended to include cyberstalking.
Distinguished from civil codes, which govern disputes between private parties.
- infractionsMinor violations of rules
- feloniesSerious punishable offenses
- capital offenseCrime punishable by execution
- penal codesStatutes defining crimes, punishments
- statutesFormally enacted laws
law · misdemeanors · penal reform · codified laws · judge · prosecution · offenses · mens rea · sentences · sentencing guidelines · three strikes law · life sentence · charge · penal · probation · courtroom · indictment · tribunal
- Islamic Lawsharia, Sharia, Shariah, Islamic law, fatwa
- Spanish Lawroyal decrees, royal edicts, Cortes, penal codes, labor codes
- criminal justicearrest, jail, court, prison, guilty
- criminal lawfelony, misdemeanor, murder, robbery, theft
- legal systemsconstitutional law, judiciary, court system, laws, civil procedure
- criminal recordsarrest records, rap sheet, rap sheets, convictions, felonies
criminal codescivil law
Law governing private disputes
tort law · contract law · family law · property law · administrative law
criminal codesunwritten law
Informal accepted rule
common law · traditional law · tribal law · social norms · community standards
criminal codeslawlessness
Absence of governing rules
anarchy · decriminalization · restorative justice · amnesty laws · pardons
crime, code, criminal, incriminate, incrimination, incriminating, incriminated, decriminalize, criminalize