petty criminals
Minor league lawbreakers
Petty criminals are people who commit minor offenses—shoplifting, vandalism, small-time theft, or public nuisance crimes.
The term distinguishes low-level lawbreakers from those involved in serious or organized crime: The neighborhood had its share of petty criminals, but nothing violent.
Petty here means small or trivial, not spiteful.
- shopliftingStealing store merchandise
- trespassingUnauthorized presence on property
- public nuisanceOffense harming the community
- delinquencyCriminal or neglectful behavior
- bad applesMembers who corrupt groups
cutpurses · vandalism · misdemeanors · minor infractions · offenders · confidence men · pickpocketing · thieves · hoodlums · juvenile delinquents · vagrants · graffiti · arrest · poachers · loitering · scoundrels · swindlers · knaves
- roguesrogue, rogues, scoundrel, scoundrels, rascal
- troublemakerstroublemaker, rascals, delinquents, imps, brats
- prisonersprisoners, inmates, convicts, felons, jailbirds
petty criminalsorganized crime
Structured illegal enterprise
crime lords · kingpins · crime bosses · crime syndicates · mafia
petty criminalsfelons
Serious crime offenders
murderers · war criminals · serial killers · terrorists · rapists
petty, criminals, pettiness, pettier, pettiest, criminal, crime, crimes, criminality