A Dictionary of Criminal Law
Terms and Expressions
Persian to English & English to Persian
Compiled by:
Ahmad Mirzendehdel
Publication Year: 2014
Preface
It is believed that “The law is a profession of words”[1]. The glossary of terms of any field of science contains such words, phrases and expressions that somehow reflect the gradual evolution of that specific branch of science. In the course of time and after being used within the circle of relevant professionals, the well-established part of such vocabulary may then be gathered as a collection, called a dictionary, a glossary of terms, a lexicon or a glossary of terminology, paving the way for a uniform and correct use of words and expressions, thus eliminating the risk of misuse and subsequent misunderstanding of the concepts in question. Evidently, the precise application of language is considered as a primary tool for proper expression of the ideas one may have in mind and the ability to communicate, either in writing or in spoken, with other professionals of the same particular area is an essential requirement for a successful career. The capability to fulfill the said requirement turns out to be extremely crucial when it comes to the “law” in general, and the “criminal law”, in specific.
It should be reiterated that a knowledge of legalese, its correct application, taking into consideration the weight of any single word used in a legal statement is of paramount importance, as any unwanted twist of words for instance in a crucial testimony, under certain circumstances, may result in either a wrongful conviction of an innocent or cause a real criminal to walk out of the courtroom as a free man. In such case, actually the trial judge, who somehow also represents the whole judicial system, is condemned, as stated in the legal maxim: “The judge is condemned when a guilty is acquitted”.
Considering the above, it can be said that irrespective of the structure of any judicial system, the knowledge of legal language is a necessary but not sufficient condition for administration of justice and vindication of rights.
From a different point of view, the nations with an ancient history having made contributions to human civilization, among all, enjoy a rich legal language and vice-versa, the richness of legalese in a specific language, serves as a true index of the extent of a nation’s contribution to human civilization.
From yet another perspective, throughout the history, one of the significant consequences of a military domination of a nation over another, has always been the linguistic influence of the dominant power, including its legal language, brought about following drastic changes in certain aspects of the governing laws with a view to secure the so called “national interests” of the dominant nation.
Criminal Law or Penal Law which is known as a body of statutes defining the crimes, rules for criminal procedure and punishment for convicted offenders is designed to deter the criminals from future criminal acts while setting an example for any potential offender on one hand and vindication of rights of the victim, on the other. More precisely, it is designed to ensure administration of justice with a view to observe the rights of both the victims and the offenders and imposition of the legally-prescribed punishment upon a convict who has received a fair and free trial through due process of law, without giving the impression of taking revenge. However, the human history is a true witness of the failure of the retributive justice so far as full eradication of crime is concerned as suggested by the legal maxim “Punishment may have an end, crime is perpetual”. Evidently, the retributions prescribed by law, shall fit the crime, however, it shall be borne in mind that the standard of fitness and proportionality of the punishment to the severity of the crime, differs from one community to another based on numerous factors, including cultural and religious backgrounds. Further, it is a matter of justice that the criminal shall experience sufficient suffering if not the same agony which is imposed upon a victim as a result of commission of the crime.
The present bilingual glossary of criminal-law terms which is intended to serve as a relatively comprehensive source of today’s most common and frequently-used penal law terms, includes the vocabulary referred to in various criminal-law-related issues, from petty offenses to felonies and from the so-called “conventional crimes” such as theft, murder and torture to the crimes with about a century-long history, such as money-laundering and organized crime and further extended to the modern-day and more complicated and thus hard-to-combat crimes, such as cybercrimes which in practice are neither possible to be fully eradicated, nor their adverse consequences on the devastated real-world victims be ignored. Furthermore, it includes the vocabulary dealing with such crime-related issues as prisons, their classifications from both levels of security and age and sex of inmates confined therein and also nature of the crimes committed, the types of tortures including both the Medieval and modern-day torturing practices conducted either in the course of interrogation for the purposes of extorting confessions or as a punishment, and the vocabulary pertaining to the global activities of the International Police (INTERPOL) to bring international and fugitive criminals, to justice.
In preparing this book, it was kept in mind that the legal sentences have to be concise and yet comprehensive, thus efforts were made to also provide example legal sentences, phrases and expressions with a view to not only eliminate the risk of putting legal words incorrectly together by native Persian (Farsi) speakers in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan whose official language is Persian[2], but also clearly and concisely explain the written-style in dealing with various penal-law concepts by introducing the usage of a specific legal term in different senses, wherever applicable. In addition, two separate sections were also provided, one allocated to the Legal Maxims which are defined as legal expressions of general truth, principles or rules of conduct, in trilingual, i.e., English, Latin and Persian and the other to the Criminal Justice Acronyms.
Throughout this book, wherever applicable, the well-established Latin synonyms are also given. Additionally, such legal words which differ in spelling in American and British English are distinguished by (US) and (UK), respectively. Words of Latin, French and Spanish origins are indicated by (Lat.), (Fr.) and (Spa.), respectively. Moreover, the non-standard variety of words, peculiar to a particular group and also the words which are unlikely to appear in serious legal texts, are marked (Slang) and (Informal), respectively, while the abbreviated forms of words are shown by (Abbr.). In cases of introducing more than one English-equivalent for a specific Persian legal word and/or phrase, such synonyms are given in an alphabetical order.
It is noteworthy that in compiling this lexicon numerous legal essays mostly in criminal law were reviewed. A list of the essays is provided in the References.
At the end, I would like to sincerely welcome with great appreciation any comments of corrective and/or complementary nature which may be raised and addressed to me through my e-mail address: amirzendehdel@yahoo.com.
Ahmad Mirzendehdel
Sworn and Certified English Translator
Tehran – Iran
[1] . David Malinkoff, The Language of the Law (1963).
[2] . It is worth mentioning that Persian (Farsi) is also spoken in southeastern Uzbekistan, western Pakistan and parts of northern India mainly for special social status because of the historical prestige of the
Persian language, as well as Pamir, a mountainous region of south-central Asia. Further, large minority
groups of Persian-speakers currently reside in Europe, Canada and the US.