criminal law
noun
the laws of a state or country dealing with criminal offenses and their punishments.
criminal laws
-
pluralof criminal law.plural
The grammatical form denoting more than one person, place, thing, or idea.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Federal prosecutors from the Justice Department launched a criminal investigation in 2024 into whether any criminal laws were broken in connection with the undisclosed relationship.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
But she was told that Bio Care had not broken any state criminal laws.
From BBC ● Aug. 30, 2025
The majority of cases documented in the report involved general criminal laws used to prosecute pregnant people.
From Salon ● Oct. 3, 2024
There are, no doubt, too many criminal laws whose vague wording gives prosecutors near-limitless leeway to threaten citizens with decades in prison.
From Slate ● Apr. 16, 2024
The severity of the criminal laws has been greatly abated; and, in conformity with the views of the legislature, we have, of late years, been gradually relaxing the stringency of our critical code.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56, Number 347, September, 1844 by Various
