- a person who commits a crime
- a convicted criminal
- Police sometimes put themselves in danger when arresting violent criminals.
- Society does not know how to deal with hardened criminals (= people who regularly commit crimes and are not sorry for what they do).
- a career criminal (= who earns their income through criminal activities)
- He admits to being a petty criminal (= who commits crimes that are not very serious).
- white-collar criminals
- a gang of criminals
Collocations CrimeCrimeCommitting a crime- commit a crime/a murder/a violent assault/a brutal killing/an armed robbery/fraud
- be involved in terrorism/a suspected arson attack/human trafficking
- engage/participate in criminal activity/illegal practices/acts of mindless vandalism
- steal somebody’s wallet/purse/(British English) mobile phone/(North American English) cell phone
- rob a bank/a person/a tourist
- break into/ (British English) burgle/ (North American English) burglarize a house/a home/an apartment
- hijack a plane/ship/bus
- smuggle drugs/weapons/arms
- traffic people/wildlife/narcotics/cocaine
- launder drug money (through something)
- forge documents/certificates/passports
- take/accept/pay somebody/offer (somebody) a bribe
- run a phishing/an email/an internet scam
- combat/fight crime/terrorism/corruption/drug trafficking
- prevent/stop credit-card fraud/child abuse/software piracy
- deter/stop criminals/burglars/thieves/shoplifters/vandals
- reduce/tackle/crack down on knife/gun/violent/street crime; (especially British English) antisocial behaviour
- foil a bank raid/a terrorist plot
- help/support/protect the victims of crime
- report a crime/a theft/a rape/an attack/(especially British English) an incident to the police
- witness the crime/attack/murder/incident
- investigate a murder/(especially North American English) a homicide/a burglary/a robbery/the alleged incident
- conduct/launch/pursue an investigation (into…); (especially British English) a police/murder inquiry
- investigate/reopen a criminal/murder case
- examine/investigate/find fingerprints at the crime scene/the scene of crime
- collect/gather forensic evidence
- uncover new evidence/a fraud/a scam/a plot/a conspiracy/political corruption/a cache of weapons
- describe/identify a suspect/the culprit/the perpetrator/the assailant/the attacker
- question/interrogate a suspect/witness
- solve/crack the case
Extra ExamplesTopics Crime and punishmenta2- He has been associating with known criminals.
- I told him to pass the information to the police so they could catch the criminals.
- She was treated like a common criminal.
- Sending these youngsters to prison simply trains them to become professional criminals.
- serial killers and other kinds of violent criminals
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- dangerous
- violent
- real
- …
- catch
- convict
- prosecute
- …
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