3,576 articles
Anthony Spilotro
Anthony "Tony the Ant" Spilotro (1938-1986), Chicago Outfit enforcer who protected the Las Vegas casino skim from 1971, led the Hole in the Wall Gang, and was beaten to death with his brother Michael in 1986; basis for Nicky Santoro in Casino.
Anti-rape device
Anti-rape devices are products designed to prevent, deter, or document rape, spanning internal barbed devices like Rape-aXe, safety wearables and alarms, phone apps, and consent-recording tools, with mixed evidence of effectiveness and criticism for shifting responsibility onto women.
Anti-Recidivism Coalition
Anti-Recidivism Coalition (ARC), California 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded 2013 by producer Scott Budnick; reentry services, Hope and Redemption Team, and policy advocacy for formerly incarcerated people.
Anti-social behaviour order
Anti-social behaviour order (ASBO): British civil order under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 prohibiting named acts or places, breach a criminal offence; replaced in England and Wales in 2014 by civil injunctions and CBOs, still used in Scotland.
Anticipatory bail
Anticipatory bail, India's pre-arrest bail under Section 438 CrPC, now Section 482 BNSS, lets a person fearing arrest for a non-bailable offence obtain bail in advance; Sushila Aggarwal (2020) made it normally non time-limited.
Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996
AEDPA, Public Law 104-132 (S. 735), signed April 24, 1996 after the Oklahoma City bombing; a US antiterrorism statute best known for restricting federal habeas corpus review via 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d).
Antwerp diamond heist
The Antwerp diamond heist (February 2003): the School of Turin, led by Leonardo Notarbartolo, opened the Antwerp Diamond Center vault and stole over $100 million in diamonds, the largest diamond heist on record; almost none of the loot was recovered.
Anwar Ibrahim sodomy trials
The Anwar Ibrahim sodomy trials were two politically charged prosecutions of Malaysia's opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim under Penal Code s.377B: a 1998 case (convicted 2000, overturned 2004) and a 2008 case (acquitted 2012, convicted 2014–15, pardoned 2018); he became prime minister in 2022.
Apalachin meeting
The Apalachin meeting, also called the Apalachin raid or summit, was a November 14, 1957 gathering of American Mafia bosses at Joseph Barbara Sr.'s estate in Apalachin, New York, broken up by New York State Police under Sgt. Edgar Croswell, first public proof of a national crime syndicate.
Aqua Tofana
Aqua Tofana, also sold as Manna of St Nicholas, was an arsenic-based poison developed in Sicily around 1630 and sold in Rome and Naples, becoming notorious in a 1659 trial.
Arctic Frost investigation
Arctic Frost investigation: FBI codename for the April 2022 probe into Trump's false electors effort to overturn the 2020 election, transferred to Special Counsel Jack Smith, later the focus of Grassley-led congressional oversight, hearings, and lawsuits.
Ariel Castro kidnappings
Ariel Castro kidnappings: 2002-2004 abductions of Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Gina DeJesus in Cleveland; decade-long captivity at 2207 Seymour Avenue; Castro's 937-count guilty plea, life plus 1,000 years, and 2013 prison suicide.
Arizona State Prison Complex – Florence
Arizona State Prison Complex – Florence (ASPC Florence) is an ADCRR state prison complex in Florence, Arizona, including South Unit housing and GEO-run Florence West (750 beds, opened 1997); Florence town also hosts CoreCivic's 5,003-bed Central Arizona Florence Correctional Complex and state execution site.
Armenian genocide denial
Armenian genocide denial: rejection, minimization, or legalistic reframing of the 1915 genocide of Ottoman Armenians. Covers Turkish state institutionalization, denial arguments, recognition diplomacy, and the Perinçek v. Switzerland litigation.
Armenian Power
Armenian Power (AP, AP-13) is an Armenian American street gang and organized crime group founded in East Hollywood, Los Angeles in the 1980s, allied with the Mexican Mafia, centered on fraud, hit by the 2011 Operation Power Outage takedown.
Armin Meiwes
Armin Meiwes, the "Cannibal of Rotenburg" (Kannibale von Rotenburg), killed and ate Bernd Brandes in 2001 after an internet ad; convicted of manslaughter in 2004, then murder with life imprisonment in 2006.
Arnold Rothstein
Arnold Rothstein (1882–1928), New York gambler and racketeer called 'The Brain,' reputed nation's biggest high-stakes gambler, linked to the 1919 Black Sox fix, murdered unsolved in the Park Central Hotel; inspiration for Gatsby's Meyer Wolfsheim.
Arraignment
Arraignment is the first court hearing in a criminal case, where the defendant learns the charges, is advised of rights including appointed counsel, and enters a guilty or not-guilty plea; deadlines, bail, and remote practice vary by jurisdiction.
Arrest
Arrest: taking a person into custody to answer charges. Also called custodial detention; governed by warrant rules, probable cause, Article 22 safeguards in India, Fourth Amendment standards in the US, and prompt judicial review.
Arrest of Marcy Rheintgen
March 19, 2025 arrest of Marcy Rheintgen, a 20-year-old transgender woman from Illinois, for trespassing after using a women's restroom at the Florida Capitol under HB 1521; the first known arrest under such a ban, dismissed June 20, 2025 on speedy-trial grounds.
Arrest of Rodrigo Duterte
Arrest of Rodrigo Duterte: former Philippine president detained 11 March 2025 in Manila on an ICC warrant for the crime against humanity of murder over his drug war; first former Asian head of state arrested by the ICC; charges confirmed April 2026.
Arrest warrant
Arrest warrant: a judicial order authorizing an officer to arrest a named person, issued on probable cause. Covers U.S. federal Rule 4, warrantless arrests (Watson 1976), general warrants, bench, administrative, European, ICC, and geofence warrants.
Arson
Arson is the willful or malicious destruction of property by fire or explosion, once limited at common law to burning another's dwelling. Covers statutory definitions, penalties in England, Wales, and the US, fire investigation under NFPA 921, and wrongful-conviction reforms.
Arthur Leigh Allen
Arthur Leigh Allen was a Vallejo schoolteacher and convicted child molester, the only suspect police publicly named in the Zodiac Killer case. Fingerprints, handwriting, and a 2002 partial DNA test all failed to match him; he died in 1992 denying guilt.
Arthur Shawcross
Arthur Shawcross, the Genesee River Killer, was an American serial killer who murdered two children in Watertown, New York in 1972 and, after a controversial 1987 parole, 11 women in Rochester before his 1990 conviction; he died in prison in 2008.
Arturo Guzmán Decena
Arturo Guzmán Decena (Z-1, 1976–2002) was a Mexican Army GAFE lieutenant who deserted in 1997 to Osiel Cárdenas' Gulf Cartel, recruited about 30 special-forces deserters, and founded Los Zetas; he died in a 2002 Matamoros shootout.
Arun Gawli (अरुण गुलाब गवळी)
Arun Gawli (Arun Gulab Gawli, अरुण गुलाब गवळी), alias Daddy, is a Mumbai gangster-turned-politician of Dagdi Chawl, Byculla, who feuded with Dawood Ibrahim, founded the Akhil Bharatiya Sena, served as MLA, and was convicted in the 2007 Jamsandekar murder before 2025 bail release.
Aryan Brotherhood
Aryan Brotherhood (AB, "the Brand"): white supremacist prison gang formed in California prisons in the 1960s, now also in the federal system; RICO prosecutions, drug trafficking, murder-for-hire; distinct from Aryan Brotherhood of Texas.
Aryan Brotherhood of Texas
Aryan Brotherhood of Texas (ABT), white supremacist prison gang and organized crime group founded in the early 1980s in the Texas prison system; unrelated to the California Aryan Brotherhood; run by five generals; dismantled by federal racketeering prosecutions in 2012-2014 and 2017.
Ashley Smith inquest
The Ashley Smith inquest was an Ontario coroner's inquest (2012-2013, Dr. John Carlisle) into the 2007 death of a 19-year-old woman in segregation at Grand Valley Institution; the jury ruled homicide and issued 104 recommendations to the Correctional Service of Canada.