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Crime and Law English Vocabulary! – Complete Guide!


good afternoon I’m Jim newsmen today’s
top stories the Prime Minister has been
arrested for trespassing through a field
of wheat a kitten in London has been
Dracula the fictional public domain
character has been accused of robbery he
denies the charge this puppy from
Liverpool has been sentenced to eight
years in prison for tax evasion in a
public statement made by his lawyer he
said roof and finally Hercules famous
for his impressive strength and amazing
ABS has been found guilty of drug
possession and steroid use those stories
and more coming up after today’s lesson
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if you commit a crime than you’re a
criminal and I or another police officer
will arrest you take you to jail then
you’ll go to court for your trial where
a jury might decide the verdict are you
guilty or innocent if you’re found
guilty then you’ll go to prison for a
long time so like own don’t be a
criminal it’s rubbish it’s hot it’s
really hot okay so if you do a crime we
say you commit a crime that’s the verb
which collocates to crime and all of the
crimes that you’ll learn today
first let’s look at the violent crimes
when someone is hurt or injured so the
word for hurting or injuring someone in
general doesn’t have to be physical it
could be emotional – but the word is
you might also hear the word battery and
in this case where someone is physically
harmed there’s a physical injury it’s
actually both you can say this is
assault or this is battery that’s the
name of the crime but very specifically
there is a difference battery is when
there is physical harm that’s true of
assault but if there is not physical
damage not a physical injury perhaps
it’s a threat perhaps you had someone in
another way with words perhaps that is a
type of assault and we’re going to learn
a few different types of assault in
today’s lesson okay let’s say that he
punches this guy and and without
intention he kills him he only wanted to
punch the guy he didn’t want to kill him
when you kill someone without intention
or perhaps through negligence
accidentally that has a specific name
manslaughter it’s not gender-specific
it’s for both male and female
manslaughter you commit manslaughter
remember we don’t say do manslaughter we
don’t say do a crime we say commit a
crime in this case he committed it’s a
regular verb manslaughter okay with
intention let’s say you want to kill the
if you want to kill someone and you kill
them the name of that crime is commonly
it’s called murder you commit murder
it’s the name of the crime and the verb
he murdered him again it’s a regular
verb but in law it’s called homicide in
a newspaper for example he committed
homicide because it sounds more formal
in conversation if you’re talking about
crimes you would probably say he
committed murder or he murdered him the
next crime is about a type of sexual
assault
when you force someone to have sex in
Latin languages I believe your word is
this or a variation of this in English
the nearest word is violate but that
doesn’t mean to force someone to have
sex that’s different that crime is
called rape commit rape so that’s the
name of the crime and it’s the verb
that’s not the only word confusion with
this crime the person who commits rape
is not a raper or a rapper
no it’s rapist that’s the person who
the next crime involves setting fire to
places to things if you set fire to a
place or a building or a thing this
crime is called arson the person is an
arsonist the common mistake I hear from
students with that situation with fire
you don’t say put fire on the house or
put the house on fire new the verb is
set for example the sentence the
arsonist set fire to the house or he
sets the building the car on fire two
ways of saying it okay the next group of
crimes is about stealing taking
something which doesn’t belong to you
in general when you steal when you take
something which isn’t yours you commit
theft the name of the person is a thief
the thief commits theft of course there
are many different types of theft for
example if you steal something from a
house shop a building or a person with a
that situation is called robbery you
commit robbery notice in this situation
he is stealing with a weapon with force
with a threat so that is called robbery
he is a a robber and the verb is robbed
so a whole sentence could be he robbed
the bank
if you enter a building with the
intention to steal something this one is
called burglary and the person who does
it is called a burglar the verb for this
is to burgle which is a very fun word to
say but definitely don’t do it it’s bad
our next crime happens in the street in
a usually a public place when she wants
to steal his money his phone and she has
a knife this verb is called to mug
she is mugging him the name of the crime
his mugging she committed a mugging and
maybe you’ve guessed it the name of the
person who does it is a mugger quick
differences between these three for
example you wake up in the morning your
TV is missing you were burgled someone
burgled your house someone enters your
house and they have a gun and say give
me your TV you were robbed so yet this
could be he was robbed she robbed him it
could be but more specifically in a
public place in the street this is
called a mugging
she mugged him he was mugged in the
passive try to practice these with your
own examples in the comments so the next
thing is maybe a more common crime that
probably you’ve done be honest when you
steal something from a shop whether it’s
candy or a t-shirt or anything from a
shop that is called shoplifting and the
person is called a shoplifter the verb
may be you’ve guessed it it’s to
shoplift it’s a regular verb shoplift it
in the past question for you in the
comments be honest I won’t tell the
police
have you ever shoplift it you can be
honest you can tell me it’s just you and
me here tell me in the comments what did
you shoplift the next few crimes are
about stealing a vehicle taking control
when you steal a car when you take
control of that car from someone else
the crime is carjacking when it’s a
plane it’s hijacking the verb is to
hijack or carjack the person who commits
that crime is a carjacker or a hijacker
and again remember all of these crimes
you would say you commit the crime not
do the crime for example this person
committed a hijacking not did a
hijacking
if someone steals a person that crime is
called kidnap and that’s also the verb
the person who commits the kidnapping is
called the kidnapper you might read or
hear the expression white-collar crime
there’s a TV show called white collar
what are white collar crimes let’s have
a look the first example of a white
collar crime is embezzlement this is
when you steal money which is in your
care for example you steal money from
your company that’s embezzlement the
verb is to embezzle again a fun word to
say only person is an embezzler true
story I used to teach a guy who’s now in
prison for embezzlement
now taxes are annoying but you need to
pay them if you don’t pay your taxes
that’s called tax evasion that’s the
name of the crime
the person who commits tax evasion is
called a tax evader the verb we would
say this person evaded tax or of course
committed tax evasion the next one is
about lying in order to get money you
know those emails you sometimes get
where they write hey my uncle just died
he was a millionaire and I can share
that money with you if you first send me
like a hundred dollars or whatever
of course this person is never going to
pay you this is a crime this crime is
called fraud that’s also the name of the
person who commits fraud you could say
this person is a fraud this email is a
fraud but fraud is not just for those
emails it’s for anyone who lies or
deceive someone in order to gain
something financially or personally
a policeman stops you says you have
committed a crime and you say maybe just
ignore the crime and I’ll give you money
this crime is called bribery the verb is
to bribe now there’s no one word for
this person who commits bribery we don’t
have a word for that
so an example sentence he bribed the
policeman also you should know that
bribe is the verb and the noun so this
money is a bribe you could say he
offered him a bribe for example or he
took the bribe or he refused the bribe
there’s bribery happen in your city let
me know I mean if you’ve done it don’t
probably don’t write it in the comments
but does it happen let me know in the
comments let’s imagine you know
someone’s secret and you tell them I
want to tell everyone but I won’t say
anything if you pay me lots of money
what’s that called it’s called blackmail
that is also a verb so you can commit
blackmail and the person who does it is
a blackmailer so an example sentence
could be he blackmailed him 4 million
okay you know how the Mafia will tell
someone who maybe owns a shop pay us
protection money and nothing bad will
happen to your shop this is a crime and
this is called extortion when you take
money from someone usually through force
or a threat so ya think the Mafia that’s
what they do the verb is to extort so
the Mafia is extorting this guy I know
there’s a lot of vocabulary here but
remember the best way to learn the
vocabulary is by writing it down making
your own examples examples which you can
easily remember so make the examples
funny or crazy or silly they’re easier
to remember than the boring ones so
those are big crimes what about the
small crimes the small crimes in which
you might have to pay some money or
spend a day or two in jail those are
called misdemeanors those are the
smaller crimes you might just have to
pay a little money a fine
if you break damage or destroy someone
else’s property that is called vandalism
the verb is to vandalize and the person
who does it is
a vandal so a common argument a common
debate is is graffiti vandalism or art
are they vandals or artists what do you
think let me know in the comments living
in London can be quite expensive so my
other job selling sex this is called
prostitution the person who does it is a
prostitute you sometimes hear it more
informally as a hooker in TV shows and
movies most commonly and again that’s a
person who sells sex
if you enter someone’s property or a
restricted area without permission this
crime is called trespassing and trespass
that’s the verb you probably know that
the person is called a trespasser
so yeah true story our prime minister
said the naughtiest thing she’s ever
done was trespassing she ran through
fields of wheat when she was young she’s
so annoying when a person commits a
crime a police officer will put
handcuffs on that person that verb is to
arrest the police officer arrests the
criminal later that criminal will go to
a building when they have to argue that
they didn’t do anything wrong they
didn’t commit a crime
this guy is saying you committed a crime
you did it so you are guilty if you’re
guilty you did the crime but you want to
say no I didn’t do this crime I am
I’m innocent I didn’t commit any crime I
didn’t do anything wrong
these guys will hear your story the
other side of the story they are called
the jury they will make the decision
whether you’re guilty or innocent and
also this person will make a decision on
whether you’re guilty or innocent this
person controls the court they are the
judge we have a word for the decision
that is made the decision of guilty or
innocent is the verdict that’s the
decision and they don’t say we decided
you’re guilty or innocent they say we
find you guilty or innocent so for
example a sentence could be
he was found guilty of robbery now
what’s the punishment we can talk about
the punishment with the word sentence
sentence is a verb and a noun so an
example sentence could be
and he was sentenced to eight years
thank you for watching
let me know about any famous crimes from
your country who did what and what
happened next write them in the comments
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