political crimes
Treason and subversion
Political crimes are offenses against the state or its authority—treason, sedition, espionage, terrorism.
The term also covers crimes committed by governments against their own people: persecution, torture, extrajudicial killings.
Context determines which meaning applies: a dissident commits political crimes under an authoritarian regime; that same regime commits political crimes against dissidents.
He was imprisoned for political crimes could describe either a freedom fighter or a tyrant's victim.
- treasonBetraying one's nation
- state secretsProtected government information
- terrorismIntimidation through targeted violence
- seditionInciting revolt against government
- espionageCovert intelligence gathering
whistleblowing · hunger strikes · sit-ins · civil disobedience · election interference · coup d'état · regime change · sabotage · enemy of the state · subversion · insurrection · hate speech · radicalization · voter fraud · rebellion · bribery · corruption · show trial
- political repressionshow trials, state terror, sedition laws, denunciation, totalitarianism
- East German crimesborder crossing, defection, escape attempts, Stasi, samizdat
- Soviet Lawpenal code, procurator, prosecutor, counterrevolutionary, censorship laws
- Stasi operationsStasi, state security, informants, phone tapping, phone taps
- pardonsfull pardon, clemency, amnesty, commutation, reprieve
- capital punishmentdeath penalty, execution, death row, death sentence, lethal injection
political crimescrimes of passion
Violent acts from overwhelming emotion
petty theft · street crime · property crimes · violent crimes · theft
political crimesvictimless crimes
Unlawful acts lacking injured parties
white-collar crime · fraud · assault · murder · burglary
political, politics, politic, politically, politician, politicians, politicize, politicized, politicization