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Strain theory (sociology)
Strain theory (sociology): criminological tradition from Merton's 1938 anomie theory to Agnew's 1992 general strain theory, explaining crime as a response to blocked goals, loss of valued stimuli, and negative stimuli.
Stranger danger
Stranger danger: child-safety slogan warning children against unfamiliar adults, and the name criminologists give the 1980s American child-abduction moral panic; critique holds that most harm to children comes from people they know.
Strangling
Strangling is compression of the neck or restriction of breathing, causing loss of consciousness or death; non-fatal strangulation is a domestic abuse risk indicator now a specific offence in England and Wales (2022), New York (2010), and New Zealand.
Strangulation in domestic violence
Strangulation in domestic violence is neck compression by an intimate partner or family member; it can kill within minutes and often leaves no visible injury.
Strappado
Strappado (Spanish garrucha, Italian strappata) is a pulley torture: hands tied behind the back, victim hoisted and dropped with a jerk, dislocating shoulders. Used by medieval and Spanish Inquisitions, Templar and witch trials, and secular courts across Europe.
Strata title
Strata title: Australian property ownership dividing land into individually titled lots plus jointly owned common property, managed by an owners corporation (body corporate, strata company) under a registered strata plan with unit entitlements.
Strategic lawsuit against public participation
SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation): retaliatory litigation used to silence critics through defense costs and damage threats. Term coined by Pring and Canan; countered by US state anti-SLAPP statutes and the EU Anti-SLAPP Directive 2024/1069.
Stratton Oakmont
Stratton Oakmont, Inc., defunct Lake Success, New York broker-dealer (1989 to 1996) founded by Jordan Belfort; penny-stock boiler room known for IPO manipulation, NASD expulsion in 1996, SIPA liquidation, and the Wolf of Wall Street case.
Straw purchase
Straw purchase: a buy made by one person on behalf of another, chiefly in U.S. firearms law (18 U.S.C. §932, Abramski), also straw buyers in mortgage, auto loan, and campaign finance fraud.
Street prostitution
Street prostitution is the most publicly visible segment of sex work, involving sales in public spaces. Its practice is heavily dictated by a jurisdiction's legal model.
Stress position
Stress positions: forced postures held for prolonged periods in interrogation, a form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment used from Northern Ireland's five techniques to US 'war on terror' custody.
Strict liability
Strict liability is liability regardless of intent or mental state, also called liability without fault. In tort it covers abnormally dangerous activities, certain animals, and defective products (Rylands v Fletcher line); in criminal law it applies mainly to minor offenses such as statutory rape and possession crimes.
Strict liability (criminal)
Strict liability in criminal law: conviction without proof of mens rea, used mainly for regulatory and public welfare offenses such as possession and statutory rape; exemplified by R v Woodrow (1846) and moderated by due diligence defences in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
Strict scrutiny
Strict scrutiny is the highest U.S. standard of judicial review, applied to fundamental rights and suspect classifications like race. Government must prove a compelling interest pursued by narrowly tailored, least restrictive means.
Strip search phone call scam
Strip search phone call scam: 1994-2004 US hoax calls in which a caller posing as a police officer made fast-food managers strip-search employees; centered on the 2004 Mount Washington, Kentucky McDonald's case and suspect David R. Stewart, who was acquitted.
Structuring
Structuring: splitting cash deposits or withdrawals to evade the $10,000 Currency Transaction Report threshold under the Bank Secrecy Act; criminalized by 31 U.S.C. 5324, subject to same-day aggregation rules and civil forfeiture.
Stuart Couch
V. Stuart Couch (born 1965), also depicted in The Mauritanian, is a retired Marine lieutenant colonel, Guantánamo military commissions prosecutor (2003–2006), and immigration judge who withdrew from prosecuting Mohamedou Ould Slahi over torture-tainted evidence.
Stuart K. Duncan
Stuart K. Duncan, also known as Stuart Kyle Duncan, is an American jurist serving as a judge on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals since 2018.
Sture Bergwall
Sture Bergwall, alias Thomas Quick, the Swede who confessed to over thirty murders, was convicted of eight (1994–2001), recanted in 2008, and was acquitted of all eight in 2013; the Bergwall Commission found systemic flaws.
Subpoena
Subpoena is a legally binding order issued under the authority of a court or government body, which compels a person to testify or produce evidence.
Subrogation
Subrogation is the legal process by which one party assumes another's legal rights, such as when an insurer takes over a policyholder's claim against whoever caused the harm.
Substantive due process
Substantive due process is a US constitutional law doctrine holding that the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments' due process clauses protect fundamental rights, such as privacy, marriage, and parenting, from government interference.
Succession of Rupert Murdoch
The Murdoch succession battle centers on the 1999 Murdoch Family Trust, which gave Rupert Murdoch's four eldest children equal control of News Corp and Fox Corp, and the 2023-2025 legal fight that ended with Lachlan Murdoch gaining sole voting control through a $3.3 billion settlement.
Succession of states
Succession of states: replacement of one state by another in responsibility for a territory's international relations. Governs treaty continuity (1978 Vienna Convention, clean slate for new states), property, debts, and nationality; codification has had limited uptake.
Succession Treaty of Esarhaddon
The Succession Treaty of Esarhaddon, also called Esarhaddon's Succession Treaty, is a Neo-Assyrian oath imposed in 672 BC binding vassals and officials to support Ashurbanipal's succession.
Sue E. Myerscough
Sue Ellen Myerscough, born 1951, is a senior United States district judge for the Central District of Illinois, appointed by President Barack Obama in 2011.
Suella Braverman
Suella Braverman, full name Sue-Ellen Cassiana Braverman, is a British politician who twice served as Home Secretary before leaving the post in 2023 and joining Reform UK in 2026.
Suez Crisis vetoes in the United Nations Security Council
The Suez Crisis vetoes were the first vetoes cast by Britain in the UN Security Council, on 30 October 1956, when Britain and France blocked resolutions calling for Israeli withdrawal from Egypt.
Sugamo Prison
Sugamo Prison (巣鴨プリズン), a Tokyo prison in Ikebukuro run by the US 8th Army from 1945, held Japanese war criminals including Hideki Tojo until the last releases in 1958; the Sunshine City complex now occupies the site.
Sugar Act
Sugar Act (American Revenue Act, 1764): British Parliament law revising the 1733 Molasses Act, cutting molasses duty from 6 to 3 pence per gallon, taxing sugar, wine, and coffee, and strictly enforcing collection via vice-admiralty courts; distinct from the British Sugar Act of 1846.