Meaning & use
petty crime
Last updated
Meanings
noununcountable
Minor lawbreaking of low seriousness or value, such as shoplifting, small thefts or vandalism, as opposed to violent or large-scale offenses.
Grammar: Usually uncountable: petty crime increased. Use 'a petty crime' or 'petty crimes' for individual acts.
Patterns
- commit petty crime
- a rise in petty crime
- petty crime in somewhere
Police say petty crime in the town centre has fallen since more cameras were installed.
He drifted into petty crime as a teenager, mostly stealing from parked cars.
Pickpocketing and bag snatching are the most common forms of petty crime for tourists.
nouncountable
A single minor offense of this kind.
Grammar: Counted when you mean one act: stealing a bike is a petty crime.
Patterns
- a petty crime
- petty crimes such as something
Dropping litter is a petty crime, but it can still carry a fine.
The judge noted that the defendant had only a few petty crimes on his record.
Word forms
| plural | petty crimes |
|---|
Common combinations
- commit petty crime
- Many who commit petty crime do so out of desperation.
- a wave of petty crime
- The seaside resort suffered a wave of petty crime last summer.
- petty crime rate
- The petty crime rate dropped after the neighbourhood watch started.
- turn to petty crime
- After losing his job, he turned to petty crime to pay rent.
- tackle petty crime
- The mayor promised to tackle petty crime in the station area.
Synonyms and how they differ
- minor offense
- Minor offense is a legal-sounding term for a single act, while petty crime also describes the general pattern in an area.
- misdemeanor
- A misdemeanor is a specific legal category in American law, whereas petty crime is an everyday, non-technical phrase.
- low-level crime
- Low-level crime is a more clinical phrase used in reports, and it carries less of the dismissive tone that 'petty' can have.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: petty crime or petty cash?
petty crime vs petty cash
Petty cash is a small sum of money kept in an office for minor expenses. It has nothing to do with crime.
Practice
The report says that ___ is common in the area, but violent crime is rare.
Choose one answer.
Petty crime is minor lawbreaking like small thefts, and it contrasts naturally with violent crime. Organized crime and war crime are serious categories.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “petty crime”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.