CRIMEN - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

CRIMENAuthored

The Law Mind • 818 words

Definition

Crimen (Latin; plural: crimina) is the Roman and civil law term for a crime — that is, a public wrong serious enough to attract prosecution, punishment, or formal accusation under law. In its primary sense, crimen denotes the criminal act or offense itself. In a secondary but equally attested sense, it denotes the accusation or formal charge brought against a person for such an act.

The term survives in modern legal usage almost entirely as a Latin root embedded in compound phrases and maxims rather than as a freestanding term. Its most common appearances in English-language legal literature are in expressions such as crimen falsi (the crime of falsification or fraud), crimen laesae majestatis (the crime of treason or lèse-majesté), and the evidentiary rule that certain crimes — crimina — disqualify a witness from testifying or affect testimonial credibility.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): An impediment to Catholic marriage arising from a conspiracy to murder a spouse or from the death of a previous spouse under suspicious circumstances.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not independently defined; treated as a Latin source word rather than an English term in ordinary circulation.

Editorial note: The canonical law sense captured by Wiktionary is narrower and more specialized than either the civil law or common law legal meaning. A researcher encountering crimen in a canonical law or ecclesiastical context is operating in an entirely different framework from one encountering it in a Roman law treatise or an English evidentiary maxim. The civil and common law meaning — crime or criminal accusation — is the operative sense in nearly all secular legal literature.

Common Confusion

Crimen is not synonymous with the modern English word crime, even though the two are etymologically identical. In Roman and civil law sources, crimen carries procedural weight: it signals that a formal accusation has been lodged and that public prosecution is in play, as distinct from a private wrong (delictum) remedied by civil action. Treating crimen as an interchangeable synonym for any wrongful act flattens a distinction that civilian sources preserve with care.

Why It Matters in Research

Researchers encountering crimen in primary sources face three distinct interpretive contexts, and the correct reading depends entirely on which tradition the document belongs to.

First, Roman law and civil law sources: crimen here carries the procedural meaning of a publicly prosecutable wrong. The distinction between crimen (public, penal) and delictum (private, civil) is load-bearing in these texts. Conflating the two produces misreadings of liability and remedial frameworks.

Second, compound Latin maxims in common law: crimen appears most frequently in English-language legal materials as the first element of a compound — most importantly crimen falsi. The evidentiary rule that a prior conviction for crimen falsi affects a witness's competency or credibility is alive in modern evidence law and is distinct from the broader Roman law category. Researchers tracing this rule through historical sources will find the Latin phrase used with varying scope: some authorities confine crimen falsi to perjury and forgery; others extend it to any crime involving dishonesty. The boundaries of the phrase, not just its meaning, must be tracked across sources.

Third, ecclesiastical and canonical sources: crimen functions as a technical impediment to marriage in canon law. This usage is isolated from the secular legal tradition and will not appear in standard common law digests or civil law treatises.

Trap for researchers: Anderson's Law Dictionary entry in the source material above is a fragment from a larger discussion of constitutional criminal procedure — the Fifth and Sixth Amendments — and does not actually define crimen. It appears to be a misaligned excerpt. Treat it accordingly and do not rely on it as a substantive entry for this term.

Historical Dictionary Support

Black's Law Dictionary (both the first and second editions) offers a compact, accurate two-sense entry: crimen means (1) crime, and (2) an accusation or charge of crime. This dual definition reflects genuine usage in the civilian tradition and is consistent with Burrill's more detailed treatment.

Burrill's Law Dictionary is the most useful of the historical sources here. Burrill cites Institutes 1.26 and Cooper's Notes to the Civil Law, grounding the term in its institutional context. He preserves the plural crimina, which matters because Roman and civilian texts frequently use the plural when cataloguing categories of offense or when describing procedural settings in which multiple charges are in play.

None of the historical dictionaries in the Law Mind corpus addresses crimen as a canonical law term. Researchers working in ecclesiastical sources will need to consult canon law authorities separately.

Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Crime; Crimen Falsi; Delict.

CRIMENmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

Lat. Crime. Also an accu- sation or charge of crime.

CRIMENmain

Anderson's Dictionary of Law • 1890

same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life and limb; nor be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right of a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense. No ex post facto law shall be passed-by Congress or by any State. The foregoing principles restrict the power of the United States government, and do not affect State legislation. But the same principles, expressed in identically or substantially the same language, are also found in the constitutions of the States, as part of the rights which are declared to be excepted out of the general powers of government, and not delegated to the law-enacting department. See in detail the names of particular crimes; also ACCESSARY; ACCIDENT; AID, 2; ATTEMPT; BAIL, 2; CAUSE, 2; CHARACTER; Сомміт, 3; COMPACT, Social; COMPOUND, 4; CONFESSION, 2; CONFRONT; CONVICT; COSTS; DAMAGES; DECEIT, 2; DECOY; DEGREE, 2; DELIBERATION, 3; DRUNKENNESS; DUEL; DOUBT, Reasonable; EQUITY; EVIDENCE; EXTRADITION; FACTUM, Ех post; FELONY; FINE, 2; FORFEITURE; GUILTY; IGNORANCE; INDICTMENT; INFAMY; INNOCENT, 2; INSANITY, 2 (6); INTENT; JEOPARDY; JURY, Trial; MERGER, 3; OBSCENE; PARDON; POLICE, 2, 3; PREMEDITATE; PRESENT, 1; PROCESS, 1; PUNISH; RATIFICATION; REVOLT; REWARD, 1; SENTENCE; WAIVER; WILL, 1; WITNESS; L. A crime, a fault; literally, a judicial decision, or that which is subjected to a judicial decision; an accusation of wrong. 11 Greenl. Ev. § 451. 2 Emery's Case, 107 Mass. 180 (1871); United States v. Prescott, 2 Dill. 405 (1872); 1 Den. Cr. Cas. 236. See United States v. M'Carthy, 18 F. R. 87 (1883); Youngs v. Youngs, 5 Redf. 505, 509-11 (1882), cases; Exp. Reynolds, 20 Ch. D. 294 (1882); 1 Whart. Ev. §§ 533-40; 2 Crim. Law Mag. 313. That court to decide, see also Exp. Stice, 70 Cal. 53 (1886). • Spies et al. v. People, 122 111. 235 (1887); Whart. Cr. Εν. § 432. State v. Pfefferle, 36 Kan. 92-96 (1886), cases: 35 Alb. Law J. 63. United States v. Mullaney, 32 F. R. 370 (1887), Brewer, J. * Morrison v. Morrison, 142 Mass. 362 (1886), cases; Handy v. Handy, 124 id. 395 (1878), cases.

CRIMENmain

Burrill's Law Dictionary • 1867

Lat. (plur. crimina.) A crime. See Crime. In the civil law. An charge. Inst. 1. 26, pr. in loc. Heinecc. El. Jur. accusation or Cooper's Notes Civ. lib. 1, tit. 26,

crimennoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.

An impediment to Catholic marriage due to a conspiracy to murder or a death of a previous spouse.

Explore the full Law Mind legal research platform.

Subscribe Encyclopedia Sign In