6.3. Vocabulary.

ZAK WASHINGTON’S SCHOOL OF CRIME. Part One. The following list is by no means exhaustive.

 

To murder.

A murderer.

Murder/Homicide.

To steal.

A thief.

Theft.

To rob

A robber (old fashioned and comical)

Robbery

To pickpocket

A pickpocket

Pick-pocketing

To mug (violent personal theft in the street.)

A mugger

Mugging

To forge (illegally copying of documents, money, etc)

A forger

Forgery

To embezzle (illegally taking money from a business or organisation)

An embezzler

Embezzlement

To defraud (deceitfully obtaining money by use of false documentation, paperwork, etc)

A fraudster

Fraud

To con (deceitfully obtaining money; similar to the above, but normally on a more personal level)

A con artist / A con man (It is said that English is a sexist language, but you will notice that there are few female words for criminals.)

‘A con’ would be the name of a single action of this type. There are no modern sounding nouns to describe crime of this kind in general. There are some less used synonyms below.

To swindle (a less colloquial synonym of ‘to con’)

A swindler

Swindling, trickery, deceit, larceny, etc

To libel (to print falsehoods about someone)

A libeller

Libel

To slander (like ‘to libel’ but spoken, not written falsehoods)

A slanderer

Slander

To shoplift (to steal from shops)

A shoplifter

Shoplifting

To smuggle (to import / export illegal products, drugs, money, etc.)

A smuggler

Smuggling

To terrorize (to cause fear, distress, panic, etc. by violence, threats or illegal acts)

A terrorist

Terrorism