political crime

American  

[puh-lit-i-kuhl krahym] / pəˈlɪt ɪ kəl ˈkraɪm /

noun

• political crimes
  plural

1. a crime considered by a government or state to be committed against it or its interests, or to have been committed with the intent of destabilizing or threatening it or its interests.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• political crimes
  plural

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

political crime

“Because these perpetrators were held accountable, it would be nearly impossible for a political crime of this level to happen again,” I remember our teacher telling the class.

From Salon ● Mar. 7, 2026

At the beginning of “Widows,” a tightly coiled, blisteringly political crime thriller from British director Steve McQueen, four women bid farewell to their husbands for the last time.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 13, 2018

International human-rights organizations and freedom-of-expression groups have been calling for the Narvarte murders to be fully investigated as a possible political crime.

From The New Yorker ● Aug. 14, 2015

Wellington, stupidly wrong as he so often was, declared that even so moderate a reform as the bill proposed would be "a greater political crime than any committed in history".

From The Guardian ● May 3, 2013

This latter class of writers, intent upon pandering to a supposed popular appetite for sensation, pile exposure upon exposure, and hold up the objects of their diatribes as monsters of commercial and political crime.

From History of the Great American Fortunes, Vol. I Conditions in Settlement and Colonial Times by Myers Gustavus