criminality

From French criminalité, from Latin criminalitas, from Latin criminalis. By surface analysis, criminal +‎ -ity.

criminality (countable and uncountable, plural criminalities)

1. (uncountable) The state of being criminal.

   Synonyms: criminalness; see also Thesaurus:villainy

   • 2024 April 11, Ted Hesson, Mica Rosenberg, “Explainer: Trump says migrants are fueling violent crime. Here is what the research shows”, in Reuters‎^[1], archived from the original on 12 April 2024:

     A more limited universe of studies specifically examine criminality among immigrants in the U.S. illegally but also find that they do not commit crimes at a higher rate.

2. (uncountable) Criminal activity.

   Synonyms: crime, delinquency

   rampant criminality

   • 2020 December 2, Philip Haigh, “A winter of discontent caused by threat of union action”, in Rail, page 63:

     The memorandum of understanding between the Rail Accident Investigation Branch, the Office of Rail and Road and the police states: "In the absence of a clear indication that serious criminality has caused the accident, RAIB will normally have precedence in respect of the investigation and will assume lead responsibility for the investigation."

3. (countable) A criminal act.

   Synonyms: crime, criminal offence; see also Thesaurus:crime

   • 1910 October, Jack London, chapter VIII, in Burning Daylight, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, part II, pages 181–182:

     The storm-centre of a combined newspaper attack lasting for months, Daylight's character had been torn to shreds. There was no fact in his history that had not been distorted into a criminality or a vice. This public making of him over into an iniquitous monster had pretty well crushed any lingering hope he had of getting acquainted with Dede Mason.