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Compassionate release
Compassionate release, under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A), lets federal courts reduce prison terms for extraordinary and compelling reasons; the First Step Act of 2018 allowed prisoner-filed motions, and Amendment 814 (2023) defined six qualifying categories.
Competence to stand trial
Competence to stand trial is the requirement that a defendant be able to understand the proceedings and assist counsel, set by Dusky v. United States (1960).
Competency to be executed
Competency to be executed is the Eighth Amendment requirement that a death-sentenced prisoner rationally understand the punishment and its reason, established by Ford v. Wainwright, refined by Panetti v. Quarterman and Madison v. Alabama, and implemented through varying state statutes and forensic evaluations.
CompStat
CompStat is a data-driven police performance-management system introduced in the NYPD in 1994 under William Bratton, combining regular crime-statistics meetings with commander accountability; it spread widely but crime-reduction evidence is limited.
Concealed carry in the United States
Concealed carry in the United States: state-regulated carrying of hidden firearms, now 29 permitless-carry states and 21 shall-issue states plus DC after the 2022 Bruen decision, with over 21.8 million permit holders in 2023.
Conciergerie
The Conciergerie, on Paris's Île de la Cité, is the surviving lower part of the Palais de la Cité, first royal residence of the kings of France, later a Revolutionary Tribunal prison where Marie-Antoinette was held before execution.
Concurrence (criminal law)
Concurrence in criminal law is the doctrine that a defendant's guilty mind (mens rea) and guilty act (actus reus) must overlap in time for liability to arise.
Conjugal visit
Conjugal visit, also called family visit, private visit, or intimate unsupervised visit: private unobserved prison time with a spouse or partner. Offered in seven US states, the Philippines, and Victoria, Australia, with recidivism evidence.
Connections of Jeffrey Epstein
Connections of Jeffrey Epstein: the financier and sex offender's web of ties to Leslie Wexner, Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Steve Bannon, Ehud Barak and others, documented in court records, emails, and DOJ releases, with the key caveat that association is not evidence of wrongdoing.
Consent
Consent (sexual consent, samtycke) is voluntary agreement to sexual activity requiring freedom and capacity. Key facts: UK s.74 definition, Canada s.273.1, Sweden's 2018 consent-based rape law, affirmative versus no-means-no models.
Consigliere
Consigliere (Italian "counselor") is the senior advisor rank in the Italian-American and Sicilian Mafia, part of a family's administration with the boss and underboss, typically the number-three man, mediator, and keeper of rules and traditions.
Conspiracy
Criminal conspiracy: an agreement between two or more people to commit an unlawful act, the agreement itself being the offense; covers elements, overt acts, intent, Pinkerton liability, MPC unilateral reform.
Conspiracy theories about the death of Diana, Princess of Wales
Conspiracy theories about Diana, Princess of Wales's 1997 Paris crash claim MI6 or Prince Philip ordered her murder. Operation Paget and the 2008 inquest found accidental death, no conspiracy.
Contempt of court
Contempt of court is the legal doctrine punishing conduct that interferes with justice or defies court orders, in criminal and civil forms; England and Wales caps criminal contempt at two years' imprisonment and a £2,500 fine.
Contract killing
Contract killing, also called murder for hire or Auftragsmord, is a murder committed under a paid contract; descriptive term, not a distinct offence, with documented prices, hit rates, and organized-crime roles.
Controlled Drugs and Substances Act
The Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA), S.C. 1996, c. 19, is Canada's federal drug control statute, in force since May 1997, replacing the Narcotic Control Act and Food and Drugs Act parts, with scheduled substances, penalties up to life imprisonment, and Minister of Health exemptions including section 56.1 supervised consumption sites.
Controlled substance
Controlled substance: a drug or precursor chemical regulated under the US Controlled Substances Act's five schedules or the 1961, 1971, and 1988 UN drug conventions, based on medical use and abuse potential.
Controlled Substances Act
The Controlled Substances Act (CSA) is the 1970 U.S. federal statute, Title II of Pub. L. 91-513, codified at 21 U.S.C. 801-904, that sorts regulated drugs into Schedules I-V by medical use and abuse potential, with DEA administering scheduling and registration.
Convicts in Australia
Convicts in Australia, also known as penal transportation to Australia, saw over 162,000 convicts sent from Britain and Ireland between 1788 and 1868; their labor built the colonies.
Coogan's Bluff (film)
Coogan's Bluff is a 1968 Don Siegel action thriller starring Clint Eastwood as an Arizona deputy extraditing a murderer in New York; first Siegel-Eastwood film and Dirty Harry forerunner.
Cop Land
Cop Land is James Mangold's 1997 crime drama starring Sylvester Stallone as a New Jersey sheriff amid corrupt NYPD officers, with Keitel, De Niro, and Liotta; released August 15, 1997, grossing $44.9 million domestically.
Copycat crime
Copycat crime: crime inspired by a publicized or fictionalized prior crime, also called the contagion effect or imitation. Defined by a crime dyad, studied via self-report prevalence (about 1 in 4) and scoring methods; media mainly shape crime techniques.
CoreCivic
CoreCivic (NYSE: CXW), formerly Corrections Corporation of America, is a Brentwood, Tennessee-based for-profit operator of correctional, ICE immigration detention, and residential reentry facilities, the largest US private prison owner, with $2.2 billion 2025 revenue.
Corey Johnson (murderer)
Corey Johnson, aka Cory Johnson, O, CO, American federal death-row prisoner executed January 14, 2021 for seven 1992 crack-related murders in a Richmond, Virginia drug-trafficking conspiracy with Tipton and Roane.
Corleone family
Fictional New York Mafia family from Mario Puzo's 1969 novel The Godfather and Coppola's 1972–1990 film trilogy, led by Don Vito and Michael Corleone; one of five Families, distinct from real initiation-based Mafia families.
Corleone Mafia family
The Corleone Mafia family (Corleonesi) is a Cosa Nostra faction from Corleone, Sicily, led by Leggio, Riina, and Provenzano. It won the 1981–83 Second Mafia War against the Palermo families and ruled Cosa Nostra as a dictatorship until the arrests of Riina (1993) and Provenzano (2006).
Corporal punishment
Corporal punishment, also called physical punishment, is the infliction of physical pain as punishment, most commonly spanking or hitting children, and includes caning and flogging.
Corporate crime
Corporate crime is crime committed by businesses or their officials on the organization's behalf. Rooted in Sutherland's 1939 white-collar crime concept; covers fraud, cartels, and safety violations; enforced via identification doctrine, respondeat superior, and DPAs.
Corpus delicti
Corpus delicti ("body of the crime") is the common law rule that a confession alone cannot support a criminal conviction; independent proof that a crime occurred, and jurisdictional variants like the federal trustworthiness standard, are required.
Corruption
Corruption, the abuse of public office for private gain, also called bribery or state capture; measured mainly by Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, which ranked 182 countries in 2025 with a global average of 42.