What does criminalisation mean?
Criminalisation refers to the process by which an activity, behaviour, or practice is made into a crime through legislation or legal ruling. When a legislature passes a statute prohibiting something — whether possessing a drug, hunting a wild animal, or sharing copyrighted material — that act has undergone criminalisation. The term is most at home in formal contexts: legal scholarship, political debate, policy analysis, and sociology. It often carries a critical connotation, since debates about criminalisation typically concern whether the criminal law is the appropriate tool for regulating a given behaviour; critics speak of over-criminalisation when too many activities are swept into the scope of the criminal law. Sociologists also use the word to describe the labelling of people or communities as criminal. Related terms include decriminalisation and legalisation, which describe the reverse process of removing or reducing criminal penalties.
nounThe act or process of making an activity criminal — that is, of turning something into a crime by law. It can also refer more broadly to treating a person as a criminal, especially in sociological discussion.
- The process of making an activity or behaviour illegal by law.
- (Sociology) The treatment or labelling of a person or group as criminal.
"Critics argued that the criminalisation of drug possession had failed to reduce addiction rates."
"Parliament's criminalisation of fox hunting provoked years of protest and legal challenge."
"Some criminologists argue that poverty is effectively criminalised when minor offences are aggressively policed."
Rarely pluralised; usually treated as an uncountable process. Plural forms occasionally appear in academic writing referring to multiple distinct instances of criminalisation across different laws or jurisdictions.
"Comparative studies have examined the divergent criminalisations of euthanasia across European jurisdictions."
Every crime you've ever heard of exists only because somebody, somewhere, decided to criminalise it — criminality itself is a legislative choice.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of criminalisation
Criminalisation derives from the noun 'criminal', which comes via Old French from the Latin 'criminalis', from 'crimen', meaning accusation, charge, or offence. The verb 'criminalise' was formed in modern English on this base using the suffix '-ise', with 'criminalisation' as its corresponding noun of action. Its closest relatives are therefore other Latinate derivatives of 'crimen', including incriminate and recriminate. The spelling with '-isation' reflects British convention, while American English uses '-ization'.
Related word forms
How criminalisation is actually used
Formal register, common in law, politics, journalism, and academic sociology. The spelling 'criminalisation' is standard British; American usage prefers 'criminalization' with a 'z'. The prefix 'over-' is frequently attached (over-criminalisation) to criticise excessive use of criminal law.
Easily confused with criminalisation
Incrimination means making someone appear guilty of a crime they may have committed, while criminalisation means making an act illegal by law in the first place.
Stigmatisation is the marking of someone as socially disreputable, whereas criminalisation specifically involves legal prohibition.