3,576 articles
Affray
Affray is a public order offence of using or threatening unlawful violence that would make a person of reasonable firmness fear for their safety; statutory in England and Wales (3 years), NSW (10 years), common law in Hong Kong (7 years).
Age of consent
Age of consent: minimum legal age for agreeing to sexual activity, also called statutory rape law. Historically puberty-based, raised in England from 13 to 16 in 1885; today mostly 16–18, with close-in-age exceptions worldwide.
Age of consent in Mexico
Age of consent in Mexico: no single national age; state penal codes and the federal CPF set thresholds from 12 to 16 years (November 2018 distribution), with violación equiparada invalidating minors' consent and marriage fixed at 18.
Age of criminal responsibility
The age of criminal responsibility, also the defense of infancy, is the minimum age at which a child can face criminal prosecution, ranging worldwide from 7 to 18.
Agent provocateur
Agent provocateur: an undercover state or private operative who infiltrates a group and incites illegal acts to discredit or prosecute it; French term, distinct from entrapment, documented from 19th-century Europe to the UK spycops scandal.
Aiding and abetting
Aiding and abetting: criminal liability for knowingly assisting or encouraging another's crime, treated as a principal under 18 U.S.C. § 2; requires an affirmative act plus intent to facilitate, per Peoni and Rosemond.
Aileen Wuornos
Aileen Wuornos, born Aileen Carol Pittman (1956-2002), was an American serial killer and Florida sex worker who murdered seven men along central Florida highways between 1989 and 1990, confessed after her January 1991 arrest, lost her appeals, waived them, and was executed by lethal injection on October 9, 2002, in Starke, Florida, at age 46; her case inspired Monster (2003) and later Netflix documentaries.
Ajmer rape case
The 1992 Ajmer rape case, or Ajmer sex scandal, was gang rape and blackmail of over 100 schoolgirls aged 11-20 in Ajmer, Rajasthan, by 18 influential accused; final six convicted in 2024.
Akku Yadav
Akku Yadav (Bharat Kalicharan Yadav) was a Nagpur gangster and serial rapist lynched by about 200 women from Kasturba Nagar in Court No. 7 of Nagpur district court on 13 August 2004; 21 accused were tried and all acquitted in 2014.
Al Capone
Al Capone (Alphonse Gabriel Capone, 'Scarface'), American gangster who led the Chicago Outfit during Prohibition, bootlegging and gambling; convicted of tax evasion in 1931, imprisoned at Alcatraz, died 1947.
Al Indelicato
Alphonse "Sonny Red" Indelicato, Bonanno crime family capo, murdered May 5, 1981 with captains Giaccone and Trinchera in the Three Captains Murders; father of Anthony "Bruno" Indelicato; charged in the 1985 Mafia Commission case.
Al Neri
Al Neri (Albert Neri) is a fictional Corleone family enforcer in Puzo's The Godfather novel and films, a former NYC police officer, Michael Corleone's bodyguard, killer of Moe Greene and Barzini, later underboss, played by Richard Bright.
Alabama v. Jones
Alabama v. Jones: shorthand for several unrelated Alabama cases against defendants named Jones; best documented is Ex parte State of Alabama v. Jeremy B. Jones (Ala. 2011), a capital-murder postconviction mandamus ruling.
Alameddine crime network
Alameddine crime network: family-based Western Sydney organised crime group, rival of the Hamzy family since October 2020; police allege drug importation, extortion, murder for hire; leadership fled to Lebanon in 2023; denied by associates.
Alan Bates (subpostmaster)
Alan Bates, British former subpostmaster of Llandudno, founder of the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance and lead claimant in Bates v Post Office, the group litigation exposing the Horizon IT scandal.
Albanian mafia
Albanian mafia: contested label for Albanian-speaking criminal networks from Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro active in cocaine, heroin and cannabis trafficking across Europe and Latin America, organized in fis clans.
Albert Anastasia
Albert Anastasia (Umberto Anastasio, 1902-1957), 'Lord High Executioner' of Murder, Inc. and boss of the future Gambino crime family, controlled the Brooklyn waterfront until Vito Genovese and Carlo Gambino had him shot in a Manhattan barbershop on October 25, 1957.
Albert DeSalvo
Albert Henry DeSalvo (1931–1973), American rapist who confessed to being the Boston Strangler, killer of 13 women (1962–1964); convicted only of Green Man rapes, recanted, and confirmed by 2013 DNA for Mary Sullivan's murder.
Albert Fish
Albert Fish (Hamilton Howard Fish, 1870–1936), American serial killer, cannibal, and child murderer active in New York 1924–1928; convicted of Grace Budd's murder via a traced 1934 letter; executed at Sing Sing.
Albert Johnson (criminal)
Albert Johnson (criminal) was the unidentified fugitive called the "Mad Trapper of Rat River", killed by the RCMP in February 1932 after a 48-day Arctic manhunt. Distinct from fraudster Albert Johnson Walker and DNA-exonerated Albert Johnson of California; "Albert Johnson" is believed to be an alias.
Albert Johnson Walker
Albert Johnson Walker (born 1946) is a Canadian fraudster and murderer, also known by aliases David Davis and Ronald Platt, who embezzled about CA$3.2 million, fled to England, murdered identity-theft victim Ronald Platt in 1996, and was convicted at Exeter in 1998.
Albert Pierrepoint
Albert Pierrepoint (1905–1992) was an English hangman who served as Britain's Chief Executioner from 1941 to 1956, executing 435 people, the most of any Briton.
Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary
Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary (USP Alcatraz, "The Rock") was a maximum-security federal prison on Alcatraz Island, San Francisco Bay, open 1934-1963, holding about 1,500 inmates including Al Capone, famous for the 1962 Morris-Anglin escape, now a National Park Service landmark.
Alcatraz Island
Alcatraz Island, Spanish "de los alcatraces," is a 22-acre San Francisco Bay island that was a Pacific Coast fortress and Army prison, the federal penitentiary from 1934 to 1963, site of the 1969–1971 Indian occupation, and since 1973 a National Park Service landmark.
Alday family murders
Alday family murders: May 14, 1973 killings of six members of a Seminole County, Georgia farming family by escaped Maryland prisoners led by Carl Isaacs, whose conviction, 1985 venue-based reversal, 1988 retrial, and 2003 execution made the case a landmark in pretrial publicity and victims' rights.
Alejandro Castillo (criminal)
Alejandro Rosales Castillo (born 1998, Arizona), also Alex Castillo, is an American fugitive charged in the 2016 murder of co-worker Sandy Ly Le in Charlotte, North Carolina; FBI Ten Most Wanted fugitive #516 (2017), captured in Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico on January 16, 2026.
Alejandro Sosa
Alejandro Sosa, also known as Alex Sosa, is the fictional Bolivian cocaine kingpin in the 1983 film Scarface, portrayed by Paul Shenar and inspired by Roberto Suárez Gómez.
Alert: Missing Persons Unit
Alert: Missing Persons Unit is an American Fox procedural crime drama (2023-2025) created by John Eisendrath and Jamie Foxx, starring Scott Caan and Dania Ramirez as divorced Philadelphia MPU detectives searching for the missing while hunting the truth about their own vanished son Keith.
Alexander brothers (sex offenders)
Alexander brothers: Alon, Oren, and Tal Alexander, luxury real estate brokers convicted March 2026 in Manhattan federal court of sex trafficking for drugging and raping dozens of women; prosecutors seek life sentences.
Alexander family murders
Alexander family murders: August 31, 1984 execution-style shootings of four relatives of Kermit Alexander in South-Central Los Angeles, a mistaken-identity gang attack; Horace Burns convicted in 1985, codefendants Cox and Williams also charged.