Virtuous English AcademyCrime & Security — B2 English Vocabulary
This B2 vocabulary list gathers 50 upper-intermediate English words about crime & security — offences, policing and surveillance. Every word comes with a simple definition, its British-English pronunciation and a natural example sentence, so you learn each one in real context. When you are ready, open the flashcards to practise and remember them for good.
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Using crime & security words in English
Criminal vocabulary is precise in a way that everyday speech is not, and the distinctions carry real legal weight. Burglary, robbery and theft are three different offences, and so are murder and manslaughter. This page also separates bribery from blackmail, and the three words for the people involved: culprit, accomplice and felon.
What to watch out for
Theft, robbery, burglary
Theft is simply taking property. Robbery is theft involving force or the threat of it against a person. Burglary is entering a building as a trespasser intending to steal, whether or not anyone is present and whether or not force is used on a person. So an empty house at night is burgled, a person in the street is robbed, and a bicycle left outside is stolen.
Homicide covers both murder and manslaughter
Homicide is the general term for one person killing another. Murder requires intention to kill or cause serious harm. Manslaughter covers unlawful killing without that intention, or with a defence that reduces it. The distinction is the difference between two very different sentences, which is why journalists are careful with it.
Bribery, blackmail, and who is who
Bribery is offering money or advantage to corrupt someone’s decision. Blackmail is demanding money under threat of revealing something damaging — the money flows the other way. The culprit is the person responsible, an accomplice helps them, and a felon is someone convicted of a serious crime, a term that is American rather than British in current use.
Words learners mix up
Crime reporting names the offence, the property crime and the person with a precision the words themselves disguise. These clusters cover the ones that decide which charge, and which noun, is correct.
Taking a person: three different offences
| Word | What it actually means | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| kidnapping | Taking and holding a person by force or deception, typically to demand something in return. | He was convicted of kidnapping and extortion. |
| abduction | Taking a person away unlawfully, with no ransom implied. The word used of children and in family cases. | A parental abduction case crossing two jurisdictions. |
| hostage | The person held, not the act. Held to force a third party to do something — hence taken hostage. | Four staff were held hostage for six hours. |
| trafficking | Trading in people or goods illegally and repeatedly. A commercial operation rather than a single incident. | An inquiry into labour trafficking. |
Kidnapping and abduction overlap heavily, and news reports often choose abduction where no ransom is involved. The structural difference with trafficking is that it names an ongoing trade — which is why the word takes a modifier saying in what: human trafficking, drug trafficking, arms trafficking.
Damaging or taking property
| Word | What it actually means | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| vandalism | Deliberately damaging property for its own sake, with nothing gained. Uncountable. | Repeated vandalism at the station. |
| arson | Setting fire to property deliberately. A specific and much more serious offence than general damage. | The fire was treated as arson. |
| looting | Taking goods in the chaos of a riot, war or disaster. Always collective and always opportunistic. | Widespread looting followed the power cut. |
| shoplifting | Stealing goods from a shop during trading hours. Its own word because the circumstances are so specific. | Arrested for shoplifting twice that month. |
| forgery | Making a false document or artwork in order to deceive. The object itself is also a forgery. | The signature was a forgery. |
Only vandalism involves no gain, which is what separates it from theft in both law and ordinary usage. Loot also works as a noun for the goods taken — informally, for any haul — and trespass is entering land without permission, a separate matter from taking anything.
Naming the person: six words, six roles
| Word | What it actually means | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| perpetrator | The person who committed the act. Formal, neutral about conviction, and the standard word in official reporting. | The perpetrators have not been identified. |
| culprit | The one responsible. Less formal, and used lightly of trivial matters too: the culprit was a loose wire. | Police believe the culprit knew the building. |
| accomplice | Someone who helped. Guilt by assistance, and it takes in: an accomplice in the robbery. | His accomplice drove the van. |
| ringleader | The one who organised and led a group. Only meaningful where several people acted together. | The ringleader received the longest sentence. |
| assailant | The person who physically attacked someone. Specific to an assault, and common in police appeals. | The victim could not describe her assailant. |
| vigilante | Someone taking law enforcement into their own hands, outside any legal authority. | Vigilante patrols appeared within days. |
The word to handle carefully is culprit: it presumes guilt, so careful reporting uses suspect before conviction and perpetrator after. An intruder is defined only by being somewhere unlawfully, and a felon is American usage — British reporting says offender or names the conviction.
Collocations that sound natural
Police statements and court reports are written to a formula, and these are its components. They recur so reliably that recognising them is most of the work in a B2 reading passage about crime.
deterrent
act as a deterrentan effective deterrenta deterrent effecta nuclear deterrent
The verb is act as or serve as. The verb form is deter, and it takes from: deter people from offending.
raid
carry out a raida dawn raidpolice raided the premisesan armed raid
Both noun and verb. In business English a dawn raid means something else entirely — buying shares suddenly at market open.
interrogation
under interrogationa lengthy interrogationresist interrogation
British police procedure says interview; interrogation implies pressure and is more common in military and journalistic contexts.
forensic
forensic evidencea forensic examinationforensic scientistforensic accounting
Strictly it means relating to courts of law, which is why forensic accounting and a forensic analysis of an argument both make sense — it does not mean scientific.
safeguard
safeguard againstan important safeguardsafeguard the publicbuilt-in safeguards
Noun and verb. As a verb it means to protect; the noun means the protective measure itself.
vulnerability
a security vulnerabilityexploit a vulnerabilitypatch a vulnerabilityexpose a vulnerability
Countable in the security sense — three vulnerabilities were found — but uncountable when it means the human quality of being easily harmed.
Formal, neutral or informal?
Half this vocabulary is British institutional language that means nothing elsewhere, and several items are specific enough that using them loosely will read as a translation rather than as reporting.
- constableBritish · institutionalThe basic rank of a British police officer, and part of formal titles: Police Constable, Chief Constable. Not a general word for a police officer in conversation, where British English says officer or the police.
- felonAmericanFrom the American division of crimes into felonies and misdemeanours, which England and Wales abolished in 1967. British writing uses offender, or names the offence.
- mugInformal · BritishTo attack and rob someone in a public place: he was mugged near the station. Standard in speech and journalism, and the noun is mugging. The formal equivalent is street robbery.
- underworldJournalisticOrganised crime taken as a whole society: underworld figures. Slightly dramatic, common in news features, and out of place in an official report.
- squadInstitutionalA specialist police unit — the fraud squad, the bomb squad. Countable, and the word also serves for sports teams, which is unrelated.
- homicideTechnical · American-leaningThe umbrella term for one person killing another. British reporting more often names the specific charge — murder or manslaughter — and reserves homicide for statistics.
- violateRegister varies by objectNeutral and formal with rules and agreements: violate the terms, a violation of airspace. Applied to a person it means a serious assault, so the two uses are very far apart and context must be clear.
- cybercrimeNeutral · uncountableOne word, no hyphen, and uncountable: cybercrime is rising, never cybercrimes are. For a single incident, name it — a phishing attack, a data breach.
Sentences to try
Four frames from crime reporting. Each verb names a specific offence, so check them.
- The house was burgled while the family were away.
- He was charged with manslaughter rather than murder.
- The investigation uncovered widespread bribery.
- Her accomplice was arrested two days later.
Questions about crime & security vocabulary
What is the difference between burglary, robbery and theft?
Theft is the basic offence of dishonestly taking someone’s property. Robbery is theft carried out using force or the threat of force against a person, so it always involves a victim who is present. Burglary is entering a building as a trespasser with intent to steal or commit certain other offences — the defining element is the unlawful entry, not the confrontation. A shop till emptied at knifepoint is a robbery; an empty flat entered at night is a burglary; a phone taken from a table is a theft.
What is the difference between murder and manslaughter?
Both are forms of homicide, the general term for one person killing another. Murder requires an intention to kill or to cause grievous bodily harm. Manslaughter covers unlawful killings without that intention — through gross negligence or a dangerous act — and also killings that would be murder but for a partial defence such as loss of control or diminished responsibility. The distinction determines the sentence, which is why news reports are careful to use the charge actually brought.
What is the difference between bribery and blackmail?
The direction of the pressure and the money. Bribery is offering money, gifts or advantage to persuade someone in a position of trust to act improperly: He was convicted of bribing an official. Blackmail is demanding money or another benefit by threatening to reveal damaging information: She was blackmailed over the photographs. In bribery the payer wants something; in blackmail the payer is the victim. A related word is extortion, which is obtaining something by threat of force rather than of exposure.