3,576 articles
Kingston Penitentiary
Kingston Penitentiary, the Provincial Penitentiary of Upper Canada in Kingston, Ontario, opened 1835 as Canada's first penitentiary and oldest reformatory prison; closed 2013, national historic site since 1990, now a tour and film site.
Kinkaku-ji arson
The Kinkaku-ji arson: on July 2, 1950, novice monk Hayashi Yoken burned down Kyoto's Golden Pavilion, a National Treasure; it was rebuilt in 1955 from 1904 drawings and inspired Mishima's 1956 novel.
Kisangani massacres
The Kisangani massacres were the May 2002 mass killings of civilians, soldiers, and police in Kisangani, Democratic Republic of the Congo, by RCD-Goma forces after a mutiny.
Kissimmee carjacking murders
The Kissimmee carjacking murders were the killings of two young men shot point-blank during a carjacking in Kissimmee, Florida, in 1992, the first federal carjacking prosecution.
KK Park
KK Park is a large cyber-scam compound in Myawaddy, Kayin State, Myanmar, on the Moei River border with Thailand. Built from 2020 under Karen BGF protection, it trafficked thousands of workers into online fraud until the Myanmar military's October 2025 raid and disputed demolition.
Kkangpae (깡패)
Kkangpae (깡패), Korean for gangster, combines English "gang" (kkang) with pae (group). Coined after the Korean War, originally meaning a politically tied criminal; now the informal name for South Korea's organized crime groups.
Kneecapping
Kneecapping: extrajudicial punishment by shooting a victim in the leg, originating in Northern Irish paramilitary punishment attacks (2,303 shootings 1973-2000) and later documented in Bangladesh and Gaza.
Knife legislation
Knife legislation regulates the sale, ownership, and carrying of knives. Covers the US Federal Switchblade Act and ballistic-knife ban, varied state carry rules and blade limits, UK knife-crime statutes including the Crime and Policing Act 2026, Canada's prohibited-weapons rule, and Australian scan powers.
Knights Templar Cartel
Knights Templar Cartel (Los Caballeros Templarios), Mexican drug cartel formed in early 2011 from a La Familia Michoacana split, based in Michoacán; issued a Templar code of conduct, ran meth, extortion, and iron ore, and was dismantled by autodefensas and federal forces by 2015.
Kobe Bryant sexual assault case
The Kobe Bryant sexual assault case: 2003 Colorado felony charge under CRS 18-3-402 after a 19-year-old hotel worker's complaint; charges dropped September 1, 2004; civil suit settled.
Kobe child murders
The Kobe child murders (Kōbe renzoku jidō sasshō jiken) were 1997 attacks in Kobe, Japan, in which a 14-year-old killed two children, prompting reform of Japan's Juvenile Law.
Konstantinos Fotopoulos (Κωνσταντίνος Φωτόπουλος)
Konstantinos Fotopoulos (Κωνσταντίνος Φωτόπουλος), known as Kosta, is a Greek-born American sentenced to death in Florida in 1990 for orchestrating two 1989 murders with his lover Deidre Hunt.
Koodathayi cyanide killings
Koodathayi cyanide killings (Koodathai serial killings, Jolly Joseph case): six deaths in one Kerala family, 2002-2016, allegedly by cyanide poisoning; prime accused Jollyamma Joseph arrested 2019, trial ongoing in Kozhikode.
Kosovo Specialist Chambers
The Kosovo Specialist Chambers is a hybrid court, funded by the European Union and seated in The Hague, prosecuting crimes committed in Kosovo between 1998 and 2000.
Kray twins
The Kray twins, Ronald and Reginald, were identical brothers from London's East End who ran a notorious crime empire until their arrests in 1968 and murder convictions in 1969.
Kristen Gilbert
Kristen Gilbert, American former VA nurse at Northampton, Massachusetts; convicted 2001 of murdering four veterans with epinephrine injections; death-penalty jury deadlocked, life sentence.
Kurdish mafia
Kurdish mafia: an umbrella label, not one organization, for Kurdish-background heroin networks in Europe, KRI-based people smuggling to the UK, PKK European fundraising (over EUR 30 million yearly), and mafia-style repression in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Kyle Rittenhouse
Kyle Rittenhouse, an American from Antioch, Illinois, shot three men in Kenosha, Wisconsin on August 25, 2020, killing two, and was acquitted of all charges in November 2021 on self-defense grounds, with civil suits later proceeding.
Kyoto Animation arson attack (京都アニメーション放火殺人事件)
The Kyoto Animation arson attack (京都アニメーション放火殺人事件) was a 2019 gasoline arson at the studio's No. 1 building in Kyoto's Fushimi Ward that killed 36 people; perpetrator Shinji Aoba received a finalized death sentence in 2025.
La Catedral
La Catedral: prison built in Envigado, Colombia, by Pablo Escobar under his 1991 surrender deal with the Gaviria government; he lived there in luxury for 13 months before escaping in July 1992; site now disputed by religious foundations.
La Familia Michoacana
La Familia Michoacana (LFM) is a Mexican drug cartel founded 2005-2006 in Michoacán by defectors from Los Zetas and the Milenio Cartel; known for pseudo-religious ideology, extortion, and violence, it fragmented in 2011 into the Knights Templar and persists through La Nueva Familia Michoacana and United Cartels.
La Línea (gang)
La Línea ("The Line") is a Mexican criminal group founded in the early 2000s by police officers in Ciudad Juárez as the Juárez Cartel's enforcement arm; it fought Sinaloa in 2008–2011, was linked to the 2019 LeBarón massacre, and now dominates parts of Chihuahua.
La Vergne police department sex scandal
La Vergne police sex scandal: 2022-2024 Tennessee misconduct case in which five La Vergne PD officers and Chief Burrel "Chip" Davis were fired, Maegan Hall settled a federal lawsuit for $500,000 in March 2024, and no criminal charges were filed.
Labeling theory
Labeling theory, or social reaction theory, is a criminological perspective from symbolic interactionism holding that deviance results from others applying labels, driving secondary deviance via stigma.
Lady Edwina Grosvenor
Lady Edwina Grosvenor, English criminologist and prison philanthropist, daughter of the sixth Duke of Westminster, founder of One Small Thing and Hope Street, Clink investor, Women's Justice Board member.
Laisha Michelle Oseguera González
Laisha Michelle Oseguera González (born 2001), youngest child of CJNG leader El Mencho and Rosalinda González Valencia; accused in the 2021 Zapopan Navy kidnapping, obtained an amparo, and owns the café El Rincón La Chulis in Perris, California; never criminally charged.
Lake Bodom murders
Lake Bodom murders (Bodominjärven surmat): unsolved June 1960 killing of three teenage campers in Espoo, Finland; survivor Nils Gustafsson was charged in 2004 and acquitted in 2005.
Laken Riley Act
Laken Riley Act, Public Law 119-1 (S. 5), US federal immigration law signed January 29, 2025, mandating DHS detention of noncitizens charged with or arrested for theft, burglary, shoplifting, or related offenses, and granting state attorneys general standing to sue federal officials.
Lamb Funeral Home scandal
Lamb Funeral Home scandal: 1980s Pasadena, California mortuary case in which David Sconce ran mass cremations, commingled ashes, and sold organs and dental gold, prompting California cremation regulation reforms.
Landsberg Prison
Landsberg Prison (JVA Landsberg am Lech), Bavarian prison built 1905–1908; Hitler's 1923–24 Festungshaft site where he wrote Mein Kampf, then US War Criminal Prison No. 1 with 252+ executions, now a prison for first-time male offenders.