criminalize

English

Alternative forms

• criminalise (chiefly British)

Etymology

From criminal +‎ -ize.

Verb

criminalize (third-person singular simple present criminalizes, present participle criminalizing, simple past and past participle criminalized)

1. (transitive) To make (something) a crime; to make illegal under criminal law; to ban.
   • 2015, Gregg Barak, editor, The Routledge International Handbook of the Crimes of the Powerful‎^[1]:

     "Ag-gag laws criminalize undercover investigations by prohibiting one or more of three types of behavior: trespass, recording of videos, and failure to submit a video to law enforcement."

   • 2016 April 1, Dan Baum, quoting John Ehrlichman, “Legalize It All”, in Harper's Magazine‎^[2]:

     The Nixon campaign in 1968 […] had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. […] [B]y getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities.

   • 2024 April 22, Shawn Hubler, “Homelessness Case Draws Unusual Alliances: Conservatives and California Democrats”, in The New York Times‎^[3]:

     Advocates for homeless people, the American Psychiatric Association and several left-leaning states, including New York, Illinois and Minnesota, argue that criminalizing homelessness only worsens the problem.

   • 2024 June 28, Abbie VanSickle, “Supreme Court Upholds Ban on Sleeping Outdoors in Homelessness Case”, in The New York Times‎^[4]:

     A group of homeless residents sued the city, challenging the ordinances and contending that the local laws essentially criminalized homelessness.

   • 2024 October 16, Emma Bubela, “Italy Criminalizes Surrogacy From Abroad, a Blow to Gay and Infertile Couples”, in The New York Times‎^[5]:

     Italy passed a law on Wednesday that criminalizes seeking surrogacy abroad, a move the country’s conservative government said would protect women’s dignity, while critics see it as yet another crackdown by the government on L.G.B.T. families, as the law will make it virtually impossible for gay fathers to have children.

2. (transitive) To treat as a criminal.

Derived terms

• criminalizable
• criminalization
• criminalizer
• decriminalize
• overcriminalization
• recriminalize

Translations

to make something be a crime

• Arabic: جَرَّمَ (jarrama)
• Catalan: criminalitzar (ca)
• Finnish: tehdä (jostakin) rikos (object in elative and usually before rikos); kriminalisoida (fi), tehdä laittomaksi
• French: criminaliser (fr)
• Galician: prohibir (gl), ilegalizar, penalizar (gl)
• Greek: ποινικοποιώ (el) (poinikopoió)
• Hebrew: הוציא מחוץ לחוק (hotzí mikhútz lakhók)
• Italian: criminalizzare (it)
• Japanese: 犯罪視する (hanzaishi suru), 犯罪化する (hanzaika suru)
• Portuguese: criminalizar (pt)
• Romanian: criminaliza
• Russian: криминализова́ть (ru) impf or pf (kriminalizovátʹ)
• Spanish: prohibir (es), ilegalizar (es), penalizar (es)
• Swedish: kriminalisera (sv)

to treat as a criminal

• Catalan: criminalitzar (ca)
• Finnish: kohdella kuin rikollista, leimata rikolliseksi
• French: criminaliser (fr)
• Galician: criminalizar
• German: kriminalisieren (de)
• Italian: criminalizzare (it)
• Spanish: criminalizar (es)

See also

• felonize
• misdemeanorize
• illegalize
• outlaw

Galician

Verb

criminalize

1. (reintegrationist norm) inflection of criminalizar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Portuguese

Verb

criminalize

1. inflection of criminalizar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative