3,576 articles
Carnal knowledge
Carnal knowledge, a criminal-law term of art for sexual intercourse requiring slight penetration, used in rape, statutory rape and sodomy statutes; retained in US federal, Virginia and Georgia law, replaced elsewhere.
Carnkie murders
The Carnkie murders were the killings of Lesley Ford and her four children by her husband Lee Ford at their home in Carnkie, near Helston, Cornwall, in 2000.
Carol DaRonch
Carol Ann DaRonch (born 1956) is an American who escaped Ted Bundy's 1974 attempted kidnapping at Fashion Place Mall, Murray, Utah, and whose testimony led to his 1976 conviction.
Carolyn Warmus
Carolyn Warmus, the "Fatal Attraction" killer, a former Westchester teacher convicted in 1992 of the 1989 murder of Betty Jeanne Solomon, her lover Paul Solomon's wife; paroled in 2019.
Carroll Cole
Carroll Edward Cole (1938–1985), American serial killer also called Eddie Cole, strangled women met in bars across California, Nevada, and Texas; convicted of five murders, confessed to at least 13, and became Nevada's first lethal-injection execution after waiving all appeals.
Cary Stayner
Cary Stayner (born 1961), the Yosemite killer, murdered Carole and Juli Sund, Silvina Pelosso, and Joie Armstrong in 1999; brother of kidnap victim Steven Stayner; convicted 2002, death sentence affirmed 2026.
Caryl Chessman
Caryl Chessman (1921–1960), the "Red Light Bandit," was a California death row inmate convicted in 1948 of kidnapping and rape under the Little Lindbergh law; his 12-year fight, four books, and 1960 gas chamber execution galvanized the anti-death penalty movement.
Casey White prison escape
Casey White prison escape: April 29, 2022 flight of inmate Casey Cole White from the Lauderdale County, Alabama jail with corrections officer Vicky White, ending in an 11-day manhunt, her suicide in Evansville, Indiana, and his life sentence.
Castellammarese War
Castellammarese War: 1930–1931 New York Mafia gang war between Joe Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano's Castellammare del Golfo faction; about 60 killed; ended with both bosses dead, Luciano's Commission, and the Five Families.
Castle doctrine
Castle doctrine: common law rule, from Semayne's Case (1604), removing the duty to retreat when defending oneself with force, including deadly force, inside one's own home; distinct from stand-your-ground laws, which extend no-retreat to public places.
Cat o' nine tails
The cat o' nine tails is a whip of nine knotted cords on a handle, formerly used for flogging, especially in the British and American navies.
Catania Mafia family
Catania Mafia family: the Cosa Nostra family of Catania, Sicily, led by the Santapaola-Ercolano clan of Nitto Santapaola, rival to the Cappello clan; active in cocaine trafficking, extortion, and business infiltration.
Catch Me If You Can (book)
Catch Me If You Can (book) is a 1980 memoir by Frank W. Abagnale. It details his criminal career, claiming he forged over $2.5 million in checks.
Catharina Ulrika Hjort af Ornäs
Catharina Ulrika Hjort af Ornäs (1767–1837), Swedish noblewoman, daughter of Hans Gustaf Hjort af Ornäs, married 1803 Colonel Adrian Hertzenhjelm; accused in 1837 of being imprisoned by him over thirty years at Ramsnäsholm, Dalarna, until her death.
Catherine Eddowes
Catherine Eddowes (1842–1888) was an English woman murdered in Mitre Square, London, on 30 September 1888, the fourth of the five canonical victims of Jack the Ripper.
Catherine Share
Catherine "Gypsy" Share, born 1942 in Paris, is a former Manson Family member who served as Manson's chief recruiter, was convicted in the 1970 Barbara Hoyt witness-intimidation plot and the 1971 Hawthorne gun-store robbery, later became a born-again Christian and cult-awareness advocate.
Catherine Stubblefield Wilson
Catherine Stubblefield Wilson (born 1939), the 'kiddie porn queen,' ran America's largest mail-order child pornography ring from Hancock Park, Los Angeles, and received federal and state prison sentences in 1984.
Catholic Church and capital punishment
Catholic Church and capital punishment: the Church moved from historical acceptance of executions to the 2018 Catechism revision (CCC 2267) declaring the death penalty inadmissible and working for worldwide abolition.
Cathy Smith
Cathy Smith (Catherine Evelyn Smith, 1947-2020), Canadian backup singer linked to Gordon Lightfoot, pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter in John Belushi's 1982 speedball death and served fifteen months.
Causation (law)
Causation (law): the two-tier doctrine of factual (but-for) and legal/proximate causation in tort and criminal law, covering superseding causes, novus actus interveniens, R v Hughes, and civil-law condition and adequacy theories.
Causes of sexual violence
Causes of sexual violence: interacting individual, relationship, community, and societal risk factors, with gender inequality as the WHO-identified root cause; alcohol, childhood abuse, hostile norms, and weak sanctions are leading contributors.
Celeste Beard
Celeste Beard Johnson (born 1963) is an American convicted of Texas capital murder in 2003 for orchestrating the 1999 shotgun shooting of her fourth husband, Austin millionaire Steven Beard, by her lover Tracey Tarlton; life sentence, parole eligible 2042.
Cell phone murders
The cell phone murders were a quadruple homicide committed in Huntsville, Alabama, in 1996, sparked by the alleged theft of a cellular telephone from one of the victims.
Cellular Jail
Cellular Jail (Kala Pani), a 1896–1906 British panopticon prison in Sri Vijaya Puram, Andaman Islands, held Indian political prisoners in solitary cells; now a National Memorial on UNESCO's Tentative List, not a World Heritage Site.
Central California Women's Facility
Central California Women's Facility (CCWF) is California's largest women's state prison, opened 1990 in Chowchilla, Madera County, housing all security levels on 640 acres. Distinguished from CIW in Chino by size and by the August 2026 DOJ finding of constitutional violations over staff sexual abuse.
Central Park jogger case
The Central Park jogger case, also called the Central Park Five or Exonerated Five case, was the 1989 rape of Trisha Meili and the wrongful conviction of five teenagers on false confessions, vacated in 2002 after Matias Reyes confessed and DNA matched.
Cesar Chavez sexual abuse allegations
Sexual abuse allegations against United Farm Workers co-founder Cesar Chavez (1927-1993), made public by a New York Times investigation on March 18, 2026, alleging abuse of underage girls and the rape of Dolores Huerta, triggering canceled Chavez Day celebrations, renamings, and a 2026 lawsuit.
César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández
César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández is an American scholar and law professor at Ohio State University, among the ten most-cited immigration law scholars in the United States, known for crimmigration.
Cesare Beccaria
Cesare Beccaria Bonesana (Cesare Beccaria; 1738–1794), Milanese jurist and economist of the Lombard Enlightenment, author of Dei delitti e delle pene (On Crimes and Punishments, 1764), which argued for proportionality, certainty over severity, abolition of torture and the death penalty, and shaped modern criminal law.
Cesare Lombroso
Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909), Italian psychiatrist and founder of criminal anthropology at Turin, author of L'uomo delinquente (1876) and the born-criminal atavism theory, leader of the Italian Positive School with Ferri and Garofalo.