889 articles
Honor killing
Honor killing: murder of a woman by family members for perceived sexual or behavioral transgressions. Also honour crimes, femicide. Up to 5,000 victims yearly per UNFPA; planned family-council killings under community pressure.
Hostage
Hostage: a person seized or detained and threatened to compel a third party to act. Also called hostage-taking; prohibited by the 1979 UN Hostages Convention and Geneva Convention IV; historically a diplomatic institution in Rome and medieval Europe; Iran held 52 Americans 444 days.
Human trafficking
Human trafficking, or trafficking in persons, is recruiting or moving people by coercion, deception, or abuse of vulnerability for exploitation, defined by the 2000 Palermo Protocol. An estimated 27.6 million people were in forced labour in 2021, generating $236 billion in annual illegal profits.
Human trafficking in the United States
Human trafficking in the United States, defined under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 as sex trafficking or forced labor, covering federal legislation, prevalence estimates, enforcement, task forces, and victim services.
Hunter Moore
Hunter Edward Moore is an American convicted criminal from Sacramento, California, who ran the revenge porn site Is Anyone Up? and was sentenced to federal prison in 2015.
Hushpuppi
Hushpuppi is the online alias of Ramon Olorunwa Abbas (born 1982), a Nigerian Instagram influencer sentenced in 2022 to 135 months in US federal prison for money laundering.
Hutch–Kinahan feud
The Hutch–Kinahan feud is a violent conflict between two Dublin-based crime gangs that began with the murder of Gary Hutch in Spain in 2015, leaving 18 dead.
Identity theft
Identity theft: wrongful obtaining and use of another person's personal data for fraud or deception, typically economic gain. Also called identity fraud; defined in 18 U.S.C. § 1028(a)(7), measured by FTC complaints and NCVS surveys.
Illegal drug trade
The illegal drug trade is the global underground economy of producing, trafficking, and selling prohibited psychoactive substances, governed by the 1912, 1961, 1971, and 1988 UN drug conventions; UNODC estimates continued expansion of cocaine and methamphetamine markets alongside declining opiate supply.
Illegal drug trade in Colombia
Illegal drug trade in Colombia: the cocaine-centered illicit economy making Colombia the world's leading cocaine producer, with 253,000 hectares of coca in 2023, Medellín and Cali cartel history, Plan Colombia, and record seizures.
ImClone stock trading case
ImClone stock trading case: December 2001 insider selling after the FDA refused Erbitux's application. Samuel Waksal tipped family who sold $10M+, was sentenced to 87 months; Martha Stewart was convicted of obstruction, not insider trading.
Inagawa-kai (稲川会)
Inagawa-kai (稲川会), a Tokyo-based Japanese designated boryokudan founded around 1949 by Seijo Inagawa in Atami; one of Japan's three largest yakuza syndicates with the Yamaguchi-gumi and Sumiyoshi-kai, once described as second-largest at over 8,600 members.
Indecent exposure
Indecent exposure is the crime of publicly exposing one's genitals in a way likely to offend or alarm others, usually a misdemeanor in most U.S. states.
Indrani Mukerjea
Indrani Mukerjea, also known as Pori Bora, is a former Indian media executive accused of murdering her daughter Sheena Bora, arrested in 2015 and granted bail in 2022.
Infanticide
Infanticide is the killing of an infant, typically by a mother, also called neonaticide in the first day of life. A distinct offense under acts in about two dozen countries, notably England's 1922/1938 Infanticide Acts; the US has none.
Insurance fraud
Insurance fraud is deliberate deception by insurers, agents, adjusters, or consumers to obtain illegitimate gains, spanning hard and soft fraud, staged accidents, and application lies; it costs U.S. consumers an estimated $308.6 billion a year.
Internet fraud
Internet fraud is deception via digital channels to steal money, data, or identities. Also called cyber-enabled fraud or online scams; includes phishing, romance, investment, and business email compromise scams, with $16.6 billion in US losses reported to the FBI in 2024.
Internet homicide
Internet homicide: killings in which the internet or social media plays a role, as an encyclopedia, platform, trigger, marketplace, or meeting place for perpetrators. Studies find such cases largely replicate existing homicide forms, not unique crime types.
Ira Einhorn
Ira Einhorn (1940-2020), the 'Unicorn Killer,' was a Philadelphia counterculture guru and Earth Day master of ceremonies convicted of murdering Holly Maddux, whose body was found in his trunk; a fugitive in France for 16 years, he was extradited in 2001 and sentenced to life in 2002.
Is Anyone Up?
Is Anyone Up? (isanyoneup.com) was Hunter Moore's 2010-2012 revenge porn website posting nonconsensual nude photos with victims' social media links; shut down after an FBI investigation, Moore sentenced to 30 months in 2015.
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft
1990 theft of 13 artworks, including Rembrandt's only seascape and Vermeer's The Concert, from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum by two fake police officers; largest U.S. property crime, still unsolved, $10 million reward.
Isla Vista attacks copycat crimes
Isla Vista attacks copycat crimes: violence by perpetrators citing Elliot Rodger, 2014 Isla Vista attacker, including Alek Minassian's 2018 Toronto van attack, Scott Beierle's 2018 Tallahassee shooting, and the 2020 Toronto machete attack; also covers contagion research.
Israeli mafia
Israeli mafia: family-based mafia-style organized crime groups in Israel active in extortion, drugs, arms trafficking, and loan sharking, concentrated in Tel Aviv, the north, and Arab communities, with rising homicide rates and 2024 anti-crime legislation.
Jack McVitie
Jack "the Hat" McVitie (Jack Dennis McVitie, 1932-1967) was a London enforcer in the Kray twins' firm, murdered by Reggie Kray in Stoke Newington in October 1967; the killing anchored the 1969 Old Bailey convictions that ended the Krays.
Jacksonville Landing shooting
The Jacksonville Landing shooting: August 26, 2018 mass shooting at a Madden NFL 19 qualifier at the GLHF Game Bar, Jacksonville, Florida; David Katz killed Elijah Clayton and Taylor Robertson, wounded 11, then died by suicide.
Jailbait images
Jailbait images: sexually suggestive but non-nude photos of minors, often legal yet exploitative; best known as Reddit's r/jailbait subreddit run by Violentacrez, banned October 2011 after CNN coverage and a nude-image solicitation incident.
Jalisco New Generation Cartel
The Jalisco New Generation Cartel (Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación, CJNG) is a Mexican drug cartel founded around 2010 by El Mencho, a main rival of the Sinaloa Cartel.
James Galante
James Galante, Danbury, Connecticut trash hauler and owner of Automated Waste Disposal and the Danbury Trashers, ran a mob-linked property rights system and pleaded guilty in 2008 to racketeering conspiracy.
Jeffrey Epstein
Jeffrey Epstein, American financier, subject of the 2005 Palm Beach abuse investigation, the 2008 Florida plea under a federal non-prosecution agreement, the 2019 SDNY sex-trafficking indictment, and his 2019 jail death ruled suicide.
Jeffrey Epstein's Palm Beach mansion
Jeffrey Epstein's Palm Beach mansion, 358 El Brillo Way, was his Florida residence bought in 1990 for $2.5 million, the site of the 2005 abuse allegations, sold for $18.5 million in 2021 and demolished.