3,576 articles
Shooting of Liz Barraza
Unsolved January 25, 2019 shooting of 29-year-old Liz Barraza, killed in her Tomball, Texas driveway while setting up a garage sale; investigated as a possible murder-for-hire with a black Nissan Frontier suspect vehicle and no arrests as of 2025–2026.
Shooting of Mima Alicia
Killing of Alicia "Mima Alicia" Lipata, 24-year-old Filipino pro-Marcos political vlogger, shot dead by motorcycle-riding gunmen in Caloocan on July 17, 2026; two suspects arrested July 23 in Pampanga, motive linked to an 8-million-peso debt.
Shoplifting
Shoplifting is theft of merchandise from a retail store by a posing customer, also called retail customer theft. Lifetime prevalence about 10% of US adults; made a hanging offence in England by the 1699 Shoplifting Act; largely undetected, with about 2% of shoplifters arrested.
Shower Posse
The Shower Posse is a JLP-aligned Jamaican organized crime group from Tivoli Gardens, formed around 1980 in New York, led by the Coke family, blamed for over 1,600 murders, and weakened after Christopher 'Dudus' Coke's 2010 extradition.
Sicilian Mafia
The Sicilian Mafia, known to its members as Cosa Nostra, is a federation of criminal families that arose in western Sicily in the nineteenth century.
Siders case
The Siders case is the 2026 Vinton County, Ohio prosecution of Gary Siders Jr., Elizabeth Siders, Gary Siders Sr., and Christina Siders after 16 children were found in squalid Hamden home; endangerment and sexual-abuse indictments, competency findings, and prior welfare contact.
Sidney Cooke
Sidney Cooke (born 1927), "Hissing Sid", English leader of the Dirty Dozen paedophile ring; jailed 1989 for Jason Swift's manslaughter, paroled 1998, given two life sentences in 1999, and repeatedly denied parole at HMP Wakefield.
Signal for Help
Signal for Help: a silent one-handed gesture (open palm, tucked thumb, fingers folded over) created by the Canadian Women's Foundation in April 2020 during COVID-19 lockdowns, letting people in danger discreetly ask someone to check in safely; viral on TikTok, used in several rescues, with known recognition limits.
Silk Road (marketplace)
Silk Road was a darknet marketplace on Tor using Bitcoin, run by Ross Ulbricht (Dread Pirate Roberts) from February 2011 until FBI seizure on October 1, 2013; it sold mainly drugs, processed about $1.2 billion, and led to Ulbricht's 2015 life sentence.
Silvio Dante
Silvio Dante (Silvio Manfred Dante) is the consigliere to Tony Soprano and Bada-Bing club owner in HBO's The Sopranos, played by Steven Van Zandt in a role David Chase wrote for him after HBO blocked his casting as Tony.
SIM swap scam
SIM swap scam (SIM hijacking, SIM jacking): account-takeover fraud where an attacker impersonates a victim to a mobile carrier to transfer the victim's phone number to an attacker-controlled SIM, intercepting SMS one-time passcodes to access bank and crypto accounts; FBI IC3 logged $68 million in 2021 US losses.
Simon City Royals
Simon City Royals: Chicago street and prison gang founded 1971 from the 1956 Simon City club; Folk Nation ally of the Gangster Disciples; now centered in Mississippi prisons and the target of major federal RICO convictions.
Simon Levy case
Simon Levy case: 2026 Old Bailey prosecution of Simon Levy (born 1985), Tottenham serial sex offender, for murdering Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo and Sheryl Wilkins and raping a third woman; whole life order, with admitted police and CPS failings.
Simulated child pornography
Virtual child sexual abuse material, also called simulated child pornography, is digital imagery created via morphing or animation that depicts children in sexual acts. Few countries criminalize it globally.
Sinaloa Cartel
Sinaloa Cartel (Cártel de Sinaloa), Mexican drug-trafficking federation founded in the early 1990s by El Chapo Guzmán, El Mayo Zambada, and El Azul; federal, factional structure, Golden Triangle base, CJNG rival, and 2024 internal war after Zambada's arrest.
Sing Sing
Sing Sing Correctional Facility is a maximum-security New York State men's prison in Ossining, opened in the 1820s and run by DOCCS. Distinguished by extensive academic programs, proximity to New York City, oversight by CANY, and a planned prison museum.
Sippenhaft
Sippenhaft, Nazi family liability punishment: relatives of dissidents, especially the 20 July 1944 plotters, were arrested; ordered by Hitler 30 July 1944, administered by Himmler, party, and army agencies.
Sister Abhaya murder case
Sister Abhaya murder case: 1992 death of a 21-year-old Knanaya Catholic nun found in a well at St Pius X Convent, Kottayam, Kerala; closed as suicide, probed by the CBI, and in 2020 Father Thomas Kottoor and Sister Sephy were convicted of murder.
Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Sixth Amendment (1791) guarantees criminal accuseds a speedy public jury trial, notice, confrontation, compulsory process, and counsel; key rulings include Gideon, Faretta, Crawford, and Ramos.
Skellefteå assault case
Skellefteå assault case: 7 July 2022 attack on a nine-year-old girl at Morö Backe, Skellefteå; a 15-year-old convicted of attempted murder and aggravated rape of a child (grov våldtäkt mot barn), case B 769-22, sentenced to forensic psychiatric care and SEK 730,000 damages.
Slave Investigation Act
The Slave Investigation Act (노비안검법), also called the Slave Review Act, was a 956 Goryeo law under King Gwangjong that restored wrongfully enslaved people to commoner status.
Slender Man stabbing
Slender Man stabbing: May 2014 attempted murder in Waukesha, Wisconsin, where Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier, both 12, stabbed classmate Payton Leutner 19 times to please the fictional creepypasta character; both were found not guilty by reason of mental disease.
Smiley face murder theory
Smiley face murder theory: claim by retired NYPD detectives Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte that dozens of drowned college men were gang murders marked by smiley graffiti; rejected by FBI and criminologists.
Smuggling
Smuggling: evading trade regulations by moving goods or people across borders illegally, avoiding duties or prohibitions. Also called contraband trade; spans mercantilist-era Atlantic trade, cigarette and drug smuggling, and modern migrant smuggling (90% of EU irregular arrivals use smugglers; €4.7–6 billion yearly).
Snoop (The Wire)
Snoop is a fictional assassin in Marlo Stanfield's drug organization on HBO's The Wire, played by Felicia "Snoop" Pearson, cast after Michael K. Williams met her in a Baltimore nightclub; known for the season-four nail gun scene.
Snowtown murders
Snowtown murders, or "bodies in the barrels" murders: South Australian serial killings 1992-1999, 12 deaths, bodies in acid barrels in a Snowtown bank; ringleader John Bunting convicted of 11 murders.
Soapy Smith
Soapy Smith, born Jefferson Randolph Smith (1860–1898), American con man famous for the Prize Package Soap Sell, crime boss of Denver and Skagway, killed July 8, 1898 in a Skagway wharf shootout.
Social parasitism (offense)
Social parasitism (tuneyadstvo, příživnictví) was a socialist-era criminal offense punishing able-bodied people who avoided work and lived by unfair means, used in the USSR, Czechoslovakia, and briefly Belarus against beggars, prostitutes, and dissidents such as Joseph Brodsky.
Soham murders
The Soham murders: the 2002 killings of 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman by school caretaker Ian Huntley, his 2003 Old Bailey conviction, the Bichard Inquiry, and his 2026 prison death.
Solicitation
Solicitation (criminal solicitation, inchoate offense) is asking or inducing another to commit a crime with intent that it be committed; punishable even if the crime never occurs, under common law, MPC §5.02, and 18 U.S.C. §373.