Tropes regarding the depiction of law, crime, and justice in works of fiction.
Tropes:
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Media genres
- Buddy Cop Show: TV shows about a pair of cops working together.
- Cop Show: Television series about police officers.
- Crime and Punishment Series: Television series about law and crime.
- Crime Fiction: Written literature about law and crime.
- Crime Reconstruction: A dramatized reenactment of a specific real-life crime.
- Crime Time Soap: A drama that focuses on the police's personal lives as much as their careers with solving crimes.
- Criminal Procedural: Fiction that revolves around criminals and their illegal affairs.
- Detective Drama: Stories that star some sort of detective (who may or may not be a member of the police) trying to crack a case.
- Forensic Drama: The story focuses on a police forensics unit analyzing physical evidence from a crime scene.
- Gangster Fiction: Fiction that revolves around gangsters, mobsters, and organized crime.
- Historical Detective Fiction: A detective tale in some sort of historical setting.
- Hood Film: A sub-genre about inner-city gangbangers.
- Law Procedural: Fiction that revolves around judges and lawyers handling legal cases in the courtroom.
- Mystery Fiction: Stories that revolve around the investigation of some sort of perplexing mystery (usually an unsolved crime).
- Nordic Noir: A genre of Scandinavian crime fiction.
- Police Procedural: Fiction that revolves around law enforcement officers trying to pursue criminals.
- True Crime: Non-fiction media about real-life crimes, though some aspects may have been dramatized.
Trope categories
General/miscellaneous trope indexes
Law enforcement, judicial and penal systems
Criminal activities, perpetrators and victims
Violence (both legal and illegal)
- Authority Tropes: Tropes about people who hold the power to make new laws or rules, along with anyone who enforces these rules by punishing any violators.
- Civil Unrest Tropes: Tropes about sociopolitical disorder caused by common citizens (il)legally defying the governmental authorities; ranging from peaceful protests and civil disobedience, to violent riots and armed rebellions, which can often be responded with harsh crackdowns by law enforcement and the judicial system.
- Espionage Tropes: Tropes about the act of spying. This includes domestic espionage by law enforcement agencies infiltrating or surveilling criminal groups for police investigations; along with international espionage by various (civilian/military) intelligence agencies, which is extremely illegal if one is caught engaging in such activities on behalf of a foreign government (especially an enemy power in times of conflict).
- Help! Help! This Index Is Being Repressed!: Tropes about when human rights are violated by oppressive authority figures, who may decide that everyone they don't like are just criminals who deserve to be treated as harshly as they can get away with.
- Human Rights Issues: Tropes about civil/human rights, freedoms and liberties, which may be legally protected or restricted as the government deems fit.
- Morality Tropes: Tropes about how morally right (or wrong) it is to obey (or disobey) the laws and rules of society.
- A Restrained Index: Tropes about restraints and physically restraining people, which often constitutes either a crime or a punishment for one.
- Rebel Tropes: Tropes about people who defy the authorities and their laws or rules, including but not limited to outright illegal or criminal acts.
- Revenge Tropes: Tropes about vengeance, which can often be a motive for anyone who feels they have been somehow wronged to engage in (il)legal retaliation against their enemies.
- Screw This Index, I Have Tropes: For one reason or another, these people act like laws and rules don't actually apply to them, perhaps because they may hold special privileges.
- Violence Tropes: Tropes about (il)legal violence in general; whether done by the authorities, criminals, or their victims defending themselves.
Law enforcement, judicial and penal systems
- Artistic License – Law: Tropes about inaccurate depictions of the law and judicial system.
- Banishment Tropes: Tropes about whenever someone has been denied permission to enter, kicked out and expelled, or banned from returning to a specific location; often as punishment for violating that place's laws or rules (or because the local authorities just really dislike that person and never wanted their presence).
- Censorship Tropes: Tropes about official restrictions placed on the media or the personal expression of one's opinions, which may sometimes be legally enforced and prosecuted through the government's laws or policies.
- Cops and Detectives: Tropes about law enforcement / police officers, and other people whose job is to apprehend suspected criminals and/or to investigate crime cases.
- The Courtroom Index: Tropes about judges, lawyers, defendants, plaintiffs, jurors, and witnesses interacting in any sort of trial in a court of law.
- Forensic Phlebotinum: Tropes about various tools that can be used to help solve crimes.
- Mystery Tropes: Tropes about the investigation of unsolved crimes or other confusing matters.
- Perp Sweating: Tropes about how the authorities interrogate suspects accused of crimes (whether nonviolently or otherwise).
- Prison Tropes: Tropes about detention facilities that are designed to hold people who have been accused and/or convicted of crimes in captivity.
Criminal activities, perpetrators and victims
- Betrayal Tropes: Tropes about backstabbing and treachery, which are rather common behaviors amongst dishonest criminals. This index may also cover treason, which is the crime of betraying one's allegiance to their country or government.
- The Con: Tropes about confidence tricks, frauds and scams, and the people who commit them.
- Criminals: Tropes about all kinds of people who violate the law.
- Gambling Tropes: Tropes about activities which involve recreationally betting and risking money, which are illegal (or at least heavily regulated) in most places around the world.
- The Oldest Profession: Tropes about pimping, prostitution, and the exchange of sexual acts for profit, which are illegal (or at least heavily regulated) in most places around the world.
- Organized Crime Tropes: Tropes about gangsters and mobsters, or any career criminals who are members of a larger group or organization, which engage in illegal activities mostly for monetary profit.
- Pirate Tropes: Tropes about outlaws who engage in piracy, which are any crimes committed on water instead of land.
- Smuggling Index: Tropes about the crimes of smuggling and trafficking, or the secret transportation of illegal goods.
- Steal This Index: Tropes about the crime of property theft and the thieves who do it.
- This Is Your Index on Drugs: Tropes about the production, trafficking, sale, and usage of various recreational substances that are illegal (or at least heavily regulated) in most places around the world.
- Vandalism Tropes: Tropes about damaging or destroying any property that doesn't belong to you.
- Victimhood Tropes: Tropes about people who are at the receiving end of crimes.
Violence (both legal and illegal)
- Abuse Tropes: Tropes about various forms of mental and/or physical torment (especially, but not limited to, domestic violence among families).
- Child Abuse Tropes: Tropes about abuse against children by their parents or other adults.
- Disposing of a Body: Tropes about hiding the bodies of murder victims to avoid getting in trouble for their deaths.
- Genocide Tropes: Tropes about the systematic, targeted mass murder of large groups of people, which in modern times is considered to be a very serious war crime/crime against humanity.
- I Have Your Index: Tropes about the crime of abduction, kidnapping people, and holding them hostage (often for ransom or other demands).
- Murder Tropes: Tropes about the crime of homicide, or the unlawful killing of another person.
- Murder in the Family: Tropes about the act of killing one's own kin, which is the most extreme form of domestic violence.
- Public Execution: Tropes about capital punishment or the death penalty, which means killing prisoners convicted of capital crimes. Note that this practice has been legally abolished in many countries, but other jurisdictions may still sentence criminals to death.
- Sexual Harassment and Rape Tropes: Tropes about various forms of sexual abuse and assault.
- Terrorism Tropes: Tropes about violent crimes that are primarily motivated by political ideology.
- Threatening Tropes: Tropes about the use of threats of violence to intimidate and coerce others.
- A Tortured Index: Tropes about painfully harming people as a method of interrogation, punishment, or just plain sadism. The legality of (state-sanctioned) torture committed by authority figures varies by jurisdiction, but torture done by legally unprotected criminals is obviously always illegal.
Tropes (A-F)
- Absence of Evidence: A conspicuous lack of material evidence proves to be a vital clue for solving the crime case.
- Absurdly Powerful School Jurisdiction: Schools can discipline students for what they do outside the campus.
- Abusive Parents: Certain forms of parental abuse can be illegal.
- Accidental Kidnapping
- Accidental Theft: Stealing something by mistake without intent.
- Accident, Not Murder: An accidental death is mistaken for homicide.
- Accomplice by Inaction: Wanting to make someone pay for not helping you when criminals harmed you.
- Acquitted Too Late: An innocent person has been sentenced to death but doesn't have their name cleared until after they've already been executed.
- After-Action Villain Analysis
- The Alibi: A suspect explains why they couldn't have been around at the scene of the crime and/or couldn't possibly have committed the crime.
- All Crimes Are Equal: Every crime gets the same punishment regardless of how severe it truly is.
- Alone with the Psycho
- Alternate Personality Punishment
- Always Gets His Man: A cop, detective, or vigilante who boasts that they always succeed in capturing the criminal they pursue.
- Androids and Detectives
- Appeal to Force: Someone uses the fallacy that they can use force to get their way.
- Amateur Sleuth
- Ambiguous Criminal History: Someone heavily implies they have committed a serious crime(s) in the past, but it's never explained.
- Ambulance Chaser: A lawyer who eagerly chases after potential clients who have been recently injured.
- Amoral Attorney: A lawyer who is dishonest and unethical.
- Anonymous Killer Narrator
- Armed Blag
- Arrested for Heroism: Getting in trouble just for trying to do the right thing.
- Asshole Victim: When a victim of crime deserves their fate because they were very unpleasant and unsympathetic, and not because of their actions coming back to bite them.
- Atonement Detective
- Audit Threat
- Autopsy Snack Time
- Baby Be Mine: Someone kidnaps a baby due to being unable to have one of their own or feeling too attached.
- Backfire on the Witness Stand: A witness is called to the stand, but their testimony hurts the side that called them in.
- Bad Cop/Incompetent Cop
- Bad People Abuse Animals: Certain forms of animal cruelty are illegal depending on the circumstances and jurisdiction. Especially if animals are harmed or killed by methods or for reasons which fall outside of legally approved euthunization, hunting or slaughter.
- Bail Equals Freedom: Fiction depicts paying or pledging a bail as being the same as paying a fine. Once the bail has been paid, the prisoner is free to go.
- Bank Robbery: When one or more thieves rob a banking firm, whether through armed intimidation or stealthier methods.
- Banned in China: When a work of media is officially outlawed in a certain country, and one may get into legal trouble if they attempt to obtain, possess, or distribute it.
- Bathroom Control: A character is not allowed to go to the bathroom as punishment.
- Be as Unhelpful as Possible
- Beautiful Sexual Assault Victim: A character's likelihood of being a sexual assault victim, as well as whether their claims of victimization are believed, is tied to whether people think they're beautiful.
- Because I'm Good At It
- Beneath Suspicion: An unassuming criminal who is unlikely to be treated as the culprit.
- Better Manhandle the Murder Weapon: Someone gets accused of murder because they got caught touching the murder weapon after the murder happened.
- Bewildering Punishment
- Blackmail: A form of extortion in which the perpetrator threatens to reveal compromising secrets about their victim if they fail to do whatever they demand of them.
- "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: A tamer euphemism used to describe criminal actions.
- Black Market: A term referring to the secret network of criminal merchants who sell illegal goods and services.
- Blatant Burglar: Thieves stick out like a sore thumb by wearing such things as eyemasks, ski caps, and shirts with black-and-white stripes.
- Bluffing the Authorities
- Bluffing the Murderer
- Bounty Hunter: A private contractor (neither a cop nor vigilante), who gets paid by the authorities to help assist in the capture (or killing) of fugitive criminals wanted by the law.
- Burn the Witch!: In some historical (and current) jurisdictions, practicing occult magic is illegal, often being punishable by death.
- Burner Phones: Criminals often use throwaway cell phones to privately discuss their business with each other, in order to avoid getting traced or wiretapped by the police.
- The Butler Did It: It turns out that a butler is responsible for committing the crime.
- By-the-Book Cop: A police officer who takes procedure and rule-abiding very seriously.
- Calling Card
- The Caper: An elaborately planned heist/robbery of some place.
- Caper Crew: A gang of thieves who plot these heists.
- Caper Rationalization
- Captured on Purpose
- Carousel Kidnapping
- Carpet-Rolled Corpse
- The Cavalry Arrives Late: Reinforcements don't show up until after the villains have been defeated.
- Chalk Outline: The chalk outline of a corpse is drawn on the ground where the corpse was found.
- Chores Without Powers: Someone with magical abilities, superpowers, etc. does menial labor without using said powers, usually as a punishment.
- Chronic Evidence Retention Syndrome: Criminals holding onto evidence with no other function than incriminating them, when they could easily destroy it.
- Clear My Name: Someone wrongly accused of a crime has to prove they are innocent.
- Clear Their Name: A person is wrongly accused of a crime and their friend makes it their task to prove they are innocent.
- Closet Punishment: A character is locked in a closet as a punishment.
- Clue, Evidence, and a Smoking Gun: A character explains how they came to their conclusion by listing minor details that made them suspicious, then pointing out a clear giveaway that makes the previously mentioned evidence unnecessary.
- Clueless Detective: You can't really rely on this guy to solve the crime.
- Clueless Mystery
- Coat Full of Contraband
- Coffin Contraband: Hiding illegal goods next to a dead person or in their tomb.
- Cold Reading
- Colliding Criminal Conspiracies: When two different (groups of) criminals unwittingly find their respective schemes clashing with each other simultaneously.
- Comatose Canary: A key witness is unable to speak up because they're unconcious.
- Come to Gawk
- Common Nonsense Jury: The jurors in a courtroom trial are easily swayed by stupid arguments.
- Condemned Contestant
- Confess to a Lesser Crime: A criminal pleads guilty to a lesser crime to avoid punishment for a bigger one.
- Con Men Hate Guns: Con artists and other fraudsters prefer to "politely" rob people through cunning and trickery instead of using brute force or intimidation.
- Connect the Deaths
- Consulting a Convicted Killer: Those investigating the crime try to get a lead by asking questions to an imprisoned criminal who may know something about it.
- Contract on the Hitman: The hitman's employers hire someone else to kill the hitman.
- The Convenient Store Next Door
- Convicted by Public Opinion: When someone is accused of committing a crime, everyone believes that person is guilty because they don't like them.
- Conviction by Contradiction
- Conviction by Counterfactual Clue
- Cool and Unusual Punishment
- Cop and Scientist
- Cop Hater: Someone who hates the police in general.
- Cop Killer: A criminal who has murdered a police officer.
- Cop Killer Manhunt: Someone who kills a cop ends up being chased by all their vengeful colleagues.
- Cops Need the Vigilante: Police have to rely on unofficial crime-fighters to do their jobs for them.
- Corporal Punishment: The infliction of painful physical injuries to punish one's misbehavior.
- Counterfeit Cash: The production and usage of fake money, typically forged to resemble genuine currency, is obviously very illegal.
- The Corpse Stops Here: A person gets accused of murder just for being near the body.
- Corruption by a Minor: Children influencing adults to engage in criminal behavior.
- Corruption of a Minor: Adults influencing children to engage in criminal behavior.
- Cowboy Cop: A policeman who breaks all the rules of proper police procedure.
- Cramming the Coffin
- Crime After Crime
- The Crime Job
- Crime-Concealing Hobby: Someone uses an innocuous pastime to hide their criminal activity.
- Crime Magnet: Someone or something has an unusual tendency to draw criminal activity towards them.
- Crime of Self-Defense: Someone is arrested and prosecuted for defending themselves from an attacker.
- Crime Spree Montage: Montages of criminals committing crimes.
- Criminally Attractive: A government official falls for the Femme Fatale.
- Criminal Mind Games: A criminal enjoys messing with the cops by leaving cryptic clues and threats of more crimes.
- Crusading Lawyer: A passionate attorney who is genuinely interested in helping their clients for their own sake.
- Cut-and-Paste Note: Ransom notes in fiction tend to be made by cutting letters from various printed works and pasting them together to form the required sentences to make it impossible to identify the one who wrote the note by their handwriting.
- Cut Himself Shaving: Someone gives an unlikely and/or ridiculous excuse for a wound, the fabrication itself possibly even being what they've been coerced to tell others by the one who harmed them in the first place.
- Da Chief: The head of the police department who has little patience for cops who aren't picking up the slack.
- Damn, It Feels Good to Be a Gangster!
- The Dead Guy Did It
- Dead Person Impersonation: Someone steals the identity of a deceased person to use as an alias.
- Denied Food as Punishment: A child is punished by forcing them to go hungry.
- Destroy the Evidence: When you're unable to hide the evidence, you may just have to get rid of it in a more permanent way.
- Destroy the Security Camera: Breaking security cameras so you don't show up on them.
- Detective Mole
- Detective Patsy
- Diabolical Mastermind: A brilliant criminal genius.
- Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: During a competition, the villain cheats in spite of the other participants having little chance of winning. Ironically, the villain could've won easily if they played fair instead of wasting time setting up obstacles for the other competitors.
- Dine and Dash: Leaving a restaurant without paying.
- Diplomatic Cover Spy: Governments frequently exploit diplomatic immunity by using their embassies and consulates as a legitimate front for illegal espionage.
- Diplomatic Impunity: When a foreign diplomat abuses their legal immunity to the local laws of their host country.
- Dirty Cop: A corrupt police officer who aids or commits crimes instead of stopping them.
- Dirty Harriet: A policewoman goes undercover as a prostitute.
- Disability Alibi: A suspect is written off as innocent because they have a disability of some sort that makes it impossible for them to have done the crime.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Someone gets an overly harsh punishment for a minor slight.
- Doctor von Turncoat: A war criminal with valuable expertise is given immunity in exchange for working for their former enemies.
- Don't Make Me Take My Belt Off!: Hitting someone (usually a misbehaved kid) with a belt.
- Don't Tell Mama: A criminal's mother doesn't know that their child is a criminal and the criminal prefers that their mother remain oblivious of the fact.
- Double Caper
- Draft Dodging: Military draft evasion is usually a crime punishable by prison time or worse (unless the draft dodger, or conscientious objector, can make a good-enough excuse that the state finds acceptable).
- Dudley Do-Right Stops to Help
- Dying Clue
- Eat the Evidence: Attempting to orally conceal incriminating evidence.
- Emancipated Child: A minor who is no longer under the legal custody of their parents or guardians.
- Empty Cop Threat
- "Eureka!" Moment
- Everyone Is a Suspect: There's reason to believe that every nearby witness to a crime may have been complicit in it.
- Evidence Scavenger Hunt
- Evil Lawyer Joke: The poor reputation of the legal profession is a source of humor.
- Evil Plan: The villain's scheme to do something very evil and illegal.
- Exalted Torturer
- The Executioner: Someone whose job is to execute a death sentence, killing prisoners convicted of capital crimes.
- The Exile: Someone is punished for their crimes by being banished far away from their own homeland.
- The Exotic Detective
- Exposition Victim
- Extremely Cold Case: An unsolved crime that happened a long time ago.
- Facial Composite Failure: An attempt at doing a police sketch to identify a criminal leads to the drawing resulting from the witness's description looking nothing like the wanted criminal.
- Failed Execution, No Sentence: Failure to carry out a death sentence results in the convict going free.
- Fake Alibi: A suspect claims to have an alibi, witnesses confirm, yet the suspect is actually guilty.
- Faked Kidnapping
- Faking and Entering
- Fall Guy: A designated scapegoat who is used by a criminal to take the blame for the latter's crimes. May either be a (willing) accomplice who was fooled or manipulated by their partner-in-crime, or someone completely innocent who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
- Falling into Jail: A villain is defeated by being thrown or dropped directly into a prison cell.
- False Confession: Someone confesses to a crime they're not actually guilty of, usually due to coercion by the authorities.
- False Rape Accusation: A fraudulent allegation of sexual assault against an innocent person.
- Fantastic Legal Weirdness: The law works differently in a fantasy or science fiction setting.
- Felony Misdemeanor: An insignificant misdeed is treated as if it were a serious crime.
- Felony Murder
- Fiery Cover Up: Burning evidence to destroy it.
- Fighting Back Is Wrong
- Finger in the Mail: Delivering a severed finger (or other body extremity) as proof of a kidnapping.
- Finger-Licking Poison
- Fingertip Drug Analysis: Taste-testing a narcotic substance to prove it's the real deal.
- Flash Mob Cover-Up
- Flashed-Badge Hijack
- A Fool for a Client: A person in legal trouble decides to be their own defense attorney.
- Forbidden Holiday: Celebrating this particular time of the year has been outlawed.
- Foreign Money Is Proof of Guilt
- Forensic Accounting
- Found the Killer, Lost the Murderer
- Frame-Up: A criminal tries to pin all the evidence of their crime on another (innocent) person, which may lead to them getting wrongly arrested and prosecuted for it.
- Framing the Guilty Party: A criminal gets blamed for committing a crime they had no involvement in; however, it conveniently gets them in trouble for another unrelated crime that they really were responsible for.
- The Freelance Shame Squad: A bunch of people show up to laugh at a person's misfortune, which may be part of the character's punishment if they did something bad.
- Fresh Clue
- Friend on the Force
- Fugitive Arc: A storyline in which the protagonist is on the run from the law for (real or alleged) crimes.
Tropes (G-L)
- Gang Initiation Fight
- Gentleman Detective
- Give Me Back My Wallet
- Going by the Matchbook
- Good Cop/Bad Cop
- Good Lawyers, Good Clients
- Grave Robbing: Breaking into tombs to steal things from dead people.
- Great Detective
- Guilt by Coincidence
- Guilt-Ridden Accomplice: A partner in crime starts to regret what they did.
- Guilty Until Someone Else Is Guilty
- Had to Come to Prison to Be a Crook: A person gets wrongly jailed, and then becomes a real criminal as consequence.
- Hand of Death
- Handy Cuffs
- Hardboiled Detective
- Hanging Judge: A harsh judge who is extremely prejudiced against defendants, always ready to hand out guilty verdicts and sentence them with draconian penalties.
- He Knows Too Much: Someone gets killed for knowing too much about something that was supposed to be a secret.
- Hello, Attorney!
- Hidden Wire: An undercover cop or informant hides a small microphone under their clothes in order to record some incriminating conversations with a criminal.
- Hide the Evidence: You better figure out how and where to throw away the incriminating evidence that will prove your guilt in the crime.
- Historical Rap Sheet: A villain is responsible for committing some notorious historical crime.
- Hollywood Law: Inaccurate depictions of the law and judicial system.
- Honor Among Thieves: Professional courtesy that is expected between criminals.
- Hunting the Rogue: A rogue agent deserts from an organization they served and they're chased as a result.
- Identification by Dental Records
- Identifying the Body: A relative is asked to identify a body as confirmation of the deceased's identity.
- I Fought the Law and the Law Won
- The Illegal: AKA an illegal alien/immigrant; a foreigner who has crossed another country's borders and stays there without any legal authorization to do so, and they can be subjected to arrest, imprisonment, and deportation if discovered.
- Illegal Gambling Den: An underground casino that's not properly licensed or exists in violation of anti-gambling laws. Usually run by mobsters, and woe betide you if you owe them any unpaid debts resulting from prior bets you made there.
- Illegal Religion: If you get caught practicing a religious sect that has been outlawed by the state, then expect to be punished for doing so.
- Impersonating an Officer: A criminal disguises themselves as a police officer to covertly commit crimes. Note that the act of pretending to be a cop is also a crime itself.
- Impossible Theft
- Inconveniently Vanishing Exonerating Evidence
- Incriminating Indifference: Showing no emotional response towards a crime is proof that the person is complicit with the crime.
- The Informant: A witness (usually a criminal) who passes along information about criminal activity (especially crimes by other fellow criminals) to the authorities.
- Infraction Distraction: Using a minor crime as a cover for a more serious felony.
- Insanity Defense: A person tries to avoid getting in trouble for breaking the law by claiming that they are insane and therefore can't be held accountable for their actions. If successful, they will be found "not guilty by reason of insanity" (though this often results in being institutionalized at a psychiatric hospital).
- Inside Job: A crime is committed or assisted by a person who has clearance to enter the facility where the crime happens.
- Insignia Rip-Off Ritual: A discharged employee has their uniform or medals ripped off by their boss as part of their punishment.
- Insists on Being Suspected
- Instant Mystery, Just Delete Scene
- Insurance Fraud: Scams involving insurance money.
- Intangible Theft: Someone manages to steal something that isn't a physical object.
- Internal Affairs
- Internal Death Squad
- Interrogating the Dead: A dead person is temporarily revived so people investigating the crime can ask the deceased questions.
- I Remember Because...: a witness will easily remember details of what they saw because they have some connection to the name, date, or other information.
- It Never Gets Any Easier
- It Was Here, I Swear!
- I Won't Say I'm Guilty: Refusing to plead guilty.
- The Jailer: Someone who imprisons people in extrajudicial detention without the permission of the legal system.
- Jaywalking Will Ruin Your Life: Committing an insignificant crime will make you suffer for the rest of your life.
- Judge, Jury, and Executioner: Someone is responsible for instantly charging, convicting, and punishing criminals on the spot.
- Jurisdiction Friction: When two cops from different police forces clash over who has official authority to investigate crimes in a particular area.
- Jury and Witness Tampering: Someone tries to bribe or intimidate jurors and witnesses so they can get a more favorable outcome in their trial.
- Just a Gangster
- Just Got Out of Jail
- Just One Little Mistake
- Justice by Other Legal Means: A criminal gets off scot-free for what they did, but then gets punished anyway for another offense they did.
- Justified Criminal: When you actually have a good reason for breaking the law.
- Kangaroo Court: The court does not follow the proper procedure of determining whether the defendant is guilty or innocent of the crime they're accused of committing.
- Karma Houdini: When someone has committed a crime, but they never end up getting punished for it due to any number of reasons.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Someone manages to avoid being caught or punished for their crimes for a while... until their luck suddenly runs out, and the negative consequences of their actions finally catch up to them.
- The Ketchup Test
- Kids Punishing Parents: Rather than parents punishing their children for acting out of line, it's the other way around.
- The Killer Becomes the Killed: A murderer themselves becomes a murder victim.
- The Killer Was Left-Handed
- The Kindnapper
- Last-Minute Reprieve
- Law of Disproportionate Response
- Leave No Witnesses: Someone tries to avoid getting in trouble by killing everyone who saw them commit the crime.
- Let Off by the Detective
- Letter Box Arson
- Littering Is No Big Deal
- Little Old Lady Investigates
- Locked Room Mystery
- Longer-Than-Life Sentence: To prevent a criminal from ever being released from prison, they are made to serve a sentence that lasts longer than any person can possibly live.
- Loony Laws: Ridiculous rules which may or may not be enforced.
- The Lopsided Arm of the Law: The police are only competent when they're going after the main characters.
- Love Is a Crime: Love itself is illegal.
- Luxury Prison Suite
Tropes (M-S)
- Made Out to Be a Jerkass: A person gets punished for rightly lashing out at a jerk because uninformed bystanders mistook the retaliating victim for being the jerk due to not knowing the full context of their retaliation.
- Magician Detective
- The Main Characters Do Everything: It falls to the main characters to do all the evidence-hunting and crime-solving.
- Make an Example of Them: Punishing a person who did nothing wrong to deter other people.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: A murder is disguised to resemble a freak accidental death.
- Mama Didn't Raise No Criminal: A criminal's family members react with shock or disbelief after hearing about their crimes.
- Manslaughter Provocation
- Massive Multiplayer Scam: Engineered situations and several people are used in an elaborated con.
- Might as Well Not Be in Prison at All: A criminal is still a danger to the public even while locked up in jail.
- Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot
- Miranda Rights
- Miscarriage of Justice: The judicial system is not perfect. It can result in guilty people getting off scot-free, or even innocent people getting punished in their place instead.
- Mistaken Confession: Someone admits their guilt to a crime which their interrogators weren't even accusing them of committing.
- Mistaken for Imprisonment
- Mistaken for Pedophile: Circumstances lead to an innocent person being wrongfully accused of child sexual abuse.
- The Mob Boss Is Scarier
- Mob War: A violent conflict between two or more criminal gangs, often fought for control of territory or caused by retaliation for previous incidents.
- Monumental Theft: Someone steals the world's monuments.
- More Criminals Than Targets
- The Most Wanted: An official list of the top-ranking fugitive criminals currently wanted by the law.
- Motive = Conclusive Evidence
- Motive Misidentification
- Motive Rant: When the villain explains why they're committing their crimes.
- Mugging the Monster: A criminal targets the wrong person for an attack, and ends up suffering for it.
- Mugshot Montage: After people get arrested, we see a montage of their mugshots being photographed.
- Murderer P.O.V.
- Must State If You're a Cop: A misconception that undercover cops are obligated to reveal that they are police when asked (which, for obvious reasons, is not true).
- My Rule Fu Is Stronger than Yours
- Mystery Episode: An episodic plot where the protagonist must solve a crime or other mystery.
- Necro Cam: A Flashback-Montage Realization about how a character died.
- Never Going Back to Prison: A convict who was just released (or escaped) from jail is desperate to never get locked up again.
- Never the Obvious Suspect: The most obvious suspect is just the Red Herring, while the one who's Beneath Suspicion is the real culprit.
- New Rules as the Plot Demands: Breaking established rules for narrative convenience.
- No Adequate Punishment: A crime has no corresponding punishment in the rule of law.
- No Badge? No Problem!
- Noble Bigot with a Badge: A law enforcer who is prejudiced towards certain groups of people, but still desires to protect even their lives.
- Nocturnal Crime: Serious criminal activity is more likely to happen during nighttime rather than daytime.
- No Honor Among Thieves: Criminals are often not loyal to their own accomplices and are willing to betray them when it's convenient.
- Nonviolent Initial Confrontation
- No-Tell Motel
- Not Me This Time: The villain is accused of being behind the current crime, but it turns out they're actually innocent for once.
- Not Supposed to Be a Punishment: When something is used or interpreted as a punishment when it isn't supposed to be.
- Not Proven
- No Warrant? No Problem!: Police try to conduct a search of private property without having a valid warrant or excuse for doing so.
- Obstructive Vigilantism: When vigilantes (un)intentionally interfere with police operations.
- Occult Detective: A detective who specializes in solving supernatural crimes.
- Occult Law Firm: Lawyers who specialize in handling supernatural legal matters.
- Off on a Technicality: A suspect/defendant is acquitted or allowed to go free, because the authorities made a critical legal error in the process of charging and prosecuting them.
- Off the Record
- Off to Boarding School: Misbehaving children are sent to boarding school as punishment.
- Old Cop, Young Cop: An experienced lawman is partnered up with a younger rookie in the police force.
- Ominous Legal Phrase Title
- Omnidisciplinary Lawyer
- Omniscient Database
- One Case at a Time
- One Last Job: A cop or criminal is called upon to do a final mission before retirement.
- One Phone Call: People who have been arrested are only allowed to use the phone in the police station once.
- Only Bad Guys Call Their Lawyers: Suspects in police custody are automatically assumed to be guilty if they demand to have an attorney present.
- Open-and-Shut Case
- Organ Theft: Stealing body parts from a (living or dead) person to later illegally sell them as organ transplants.
- The Pardon: An official act of legal forgiveness for a criminal conviction.
- The Peeping Tom: A person who gets their sick kicks by spying on people, which is an illegal invasion of privacy.
- Penal Colony: A prison facility in a remote location that is meant to isolate convicts from the rest of civilization.
- The Penance
- The Perfect Crime
- Perfect Poison
- Perp Walk
- Persona Non Grata: An officially unwelcome individual who is banned from entering a certain place, ranging from a specific business establishment to an entire country.
- Phone-In Detective
- Phone-Trace Race
- Plea Bargain: When a suspect/defendant decides to immediately plead guilty in hopes of avoiding a harsher punishment for whatever crime they've been charged with.
- Plethora of Mistakes
- Police Brutality: When cops engage in excessively violent force against suspects or other citizens.
- Police Brutality Gambit: An arrested person tries to get the police in trouble by lying that the police used excessive force on them.
- Police Code for Everything: The police have a code for any kind of circumstance they end up dealing with.
- Police Lineup: The cops round up a bunch of arrested suspects to compare them and determine which one seems to be the likeliest culprit.
- Possession Presumes Guilt: When an innocent person gets caught with something which makes them look guilty.
- Post-Robbery Trauma: It's not uncommon for crime victims to still feel quite shaken even after the experience is over.
- Prank Punishment: A punishment in the form of a practical joke.
- Precrime Arrest: Someone gets arrested for a crime they haven't even committed yet.
- Prefer Jail to the Protagonist: The villain finds the protagonist so unbearable that they'd rather go straight to prison than endure them any longer.
- Pregnant Hostage: A pregnant woman gets held hostage.
- Price on Their Head: Someone has been targeted by criminals or the authorities for violent death and/or live capture, with an impressive cash reward being offered as incentive; thus attracting hired assassins and bounty hunters to go after them.
- Prison Episode: An episode of the show where one of the characters go to prison.
- Prison Changes People
- Private Detective: Someone who's paid to investigate criminal activity, but they're not a member of the police.
- Private Eye Monologue
- Profiling: Suspects are targeted for arrest on the basis of their ethnicity.
- Promotion, Not Punishment
- Propping Up Their Patsy: A culprit proclaims the innocence of another suspect to conceal their own culpability or further their own agenda.
- Pull the Thread
- Punished for Sympathy
- Punishment Box
- Punishment Detail
- The Punishment Is the Crime
- Put on a Prison Bus: A criminal is last seen in the story being taken away by the police.
- Rage Against the Legal System
- Ransom Drop: A discreet way to deliver a ransom to the criminals.
- Rape and Revenge: A rape victim or someone close to the rape victim gets even with the rapist.
- The Rat
- Rationalizing the Overkill: Someone gives an excuse for why they retaliated to a slight with more extremes than the offense really deserved.
- Reading Your Rights: In many countries, the police are expected to inform arrested suspects of their legal rights.
- "Rear Window" Investigation
- "Rear Window" Witness
- Recruiting the Criminal: The authorities need a convict's help to solve a crime.
- Regularly Scheduled Evil
- Returning to the Scene: A criminal goes back to same place where they did the crime.
- Revenge Is Not Justice: Personal retribution is not legally or morally justified.
- Revisiting the Cold Case
- Revive the Ancient Custom
- Rewind, Replay, Repeat
- "Rise and Fall" Gangster Arc
- Robbing the Mob Bank
- Rogue Juror: One member of the jury defies the other jurors' consensus.
- Safecracking
- Saved From Their Own Honor: A character is honor-bound to harm themselves, but is stopped by someone wise/benevolent.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Someone avoids punishment for their crimes because they're friends with the people who have the authority to punish them.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: A rich person avoids punishment for their crimes by bribing the authorities with their obscenely high level of wealth.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Supernatural Powers!: Someone uses their superhuman abilities to (try to) get away with breaking the law.
- Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: An authority figure believes that being in charge makes them above the law, which can be true if they really are that powerful and untouchable.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Beautiful!: Someone gets away with their misdeeds because of their good looks.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Someone deliberately defies the rules because they get in the way of doing the right thing.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Famous!: A celebrity tries to exploit their great fame and public adoration so that they can get away with anything.
- Screw the Rules, It's the Apocalypse!: Everyone decides that the world ending (or some other major disaster) means that laws and rules are now meaningless, and they can now do whatever the hell they want.
- Screw the Rules, They Broke Them First!: One team decides that it's okay for them to break the rules if the other team has already broken them.
- Selective Squeamishness Suppression
- Self-Restraint
- Sentenced to Down Under
- Sentenced Without Trial: Someone is condemned for a crime without receiving a trial, despite being specifically entitled to one by whatever legal system exists in the setting.
- Serial Killer Baiting: Dressing up someone as a suitable target to lure out a Serial Killer.
- The Sheriff
- Shipped in Shackles
- Shouldn't You Stop Stealing?
- Single-Target Law: A law is passed with a specific person in mind.
- Sliding Scale of Law Enforcement
- Smith of the Yard
- Smokescreen Crime: Someone commits or stages a crime to obscure another one.
- Smoking Gun Control
- Snuff Film: A film or video of someone getting murdered.
- Society Is to Blame: It is attempted to excuse a criminal's actions by placing the blame on the poor condition of the world and rationalizing that if things weren't so terrible, the criminal wouldn't have been forced to do what they did.
- Spotting the Thread
- Spousal Privilege: A defendant's wife or husband cannot be compelled to testify against them in court.
- The Stateless: Someone who is not officially recognized as a citizen or national of any sovereign country. Because they are unable to obtain a valid passport, this makes international travel and immigration laws a very legally confusing mess for them.
- Statute of Limitations: There are laws which set expiration dates on how much time can pass until a criminal offense can no longer be prosecuted.
- Steal the Surroundings
- Stealing from the Till: Embezzlement.
- Stealing from Thieves: When robbers get a taste of their own medicine.
- Stepping Out for a Quick Cup of Coffee
- Sticky Fingers
- Stock Punishment: An old-fashioned way of publicly punishing and humiliating someone by restraining them with a wooden block over their head and arms.
- The Stool Pigeon
- "Strangers on a Train"-Plot Murder
- Suicide Is Shameful: Attempted suicide may be illegal in some jurisdictions.
- Suicide, Not Murder: A self-inflicted death is mistaken for a homicide.
- The Summation: The detective explains who did the crime and how they solved the case.
- Summation Gathering: The detective gathers all the suspects together to explain which one of them is the culprit.
- Suspect Is Hatless: Someone reports a criminal while giving a description too vague and non-specific to narrow down who the criminal could be.
- Suspect Existence Failure: Someone suspected of murder gets killed by the real killer.
- Suspicious Spending: When someone spends a bit too much money on things they can't easily afford, it's taken to be a sign of them having acquired those funds through illicit means.
- Suspiciously Clean Criminal Record: A sketchy suspect has no known history of prior offenses.
- Suspiciously Idle Officers: A corrupt employee is never seen doing their job.
- Swiss Bank Account: The villain hides their ill-earned money by storing it in an offshore bank account.
- Sympathetic Murderer
Tropes (T-Z)
- Taking the Heat: Voluntarily taking (all) the blame for a crime, so that your friend doesn't have to.
- Take Me Out at the Ball Game
- A Taste of the Lash: Flogging someone with a whip as a form of punishment.
- Ten Little Murder Victims
- Terminally Ill Criminal: A character commits a serious crime after learning they have a fatal disease.
- That One Case
- There Are No Police: There's no authorities around to stop you from causing trouble in this lawless place.
- There Is No Higher Court
- There Should Be a Law: A character remarks that they believe something should be illegal.
- This Bear Was Framed
- Time-Delayed Death
- To Know Him, I Must Become Him
- Trading Bars for Stripes: A convicted criminal is given the option of serving in the military to reduce their prison sentence.
- Trail of Blood
- Train Job
- Trial by Combat: Two people in a legal dispute must settle it by literally fighting in a violent duel.
- Trashy True Crime
- Trial by Ordeal: Forcing a defendant to experience a dangerously life-threatening situation to prove their guilt or innocence.
- Trial Run Crime
- Tricked into Another Jurisdiction
- Truce Trickery: A war crime formally known as "perfidy".
- Unbelievable Source Plot
- Undercover Cop Reveal: Someone turns out to be an undercover police detective on a covert assignment.
- Unintentionally Notorious Crime
- Unishment: A "punishment" that's not so bad or even enjoyable.
- Unknowingly Possessing Stolen Goods
- The Unsolved Mystery
- Useless Security Camera
- U.S. Marshal
- Varying Competency Alibi: A character is proven innocent when they're shown to be too competent or incompetent to have done the crime.
- Vehicular Kidnapping
- Vigilante Execution: Killing someone to punish their (alleged) crimes without the permission of the judicial system.
- Vigilante Injustice: Private citizens trying to take the law into their own hands are more of a menace than a savior to society.
- Vigilante Man: Someone who's not an official agent of law enforcement decides to go out of their way to find, capture, or even punish (alleged) criminals.
- Vigilante Militia: A group of like-minded vigilantes form a crime-fighting organization.
- Villain-by-Proxy Fallacy: The logical fallacy that working with the bad guy means that you're also a bad guy.
- The Villain Must Be Punished: The villain must pay for their crimes; merely foiling their plans isn't enough.
- Vomiting Cop: A police officer pukes in response to seeing a particularly grisly crime scene.
- "Wanted!" Poster: A mass-produced document depicting images and information about a fugitive criminal wanted by the law, detailing their crimes and often promising rewards for anyone who willingly assists in their capture.
- We Need to Get Proof
- Who Watches the Watchmen?: When the authorities need to be policed themselves.
- Win Your Freedom
- White-Collar Crime: Various forms of fraud and other financial crimes.
- Who Murdered the Asshole: An unsympathetic person has been killed, but it's hard to identify the murderer because pretty much everyone who knew the bastard hated them enough to want to kill them.
- Widely-Spaced Jail Bars: A character manages to stay locked up when their cell's bars are wide enough to easily slip through.
- Witless Protection Program: When the Witness Protection Program is incompetent.
- Witness Protection: A government program in which witnesses to a crime (especially informants with valuable insider knowledge) are hidden away in a distant classified location, in order to prevent retaliation by the same criminals whom they'll testify against in court.
- Working on the Chain Gang
- Writing About Your Crime: A crime fiction writer publishes a confession in disguise.
- Writing Indentation Clue
- Wrongful Accusation Insurance
- Wrongfully Committed: A judge sentences a sane character to be institutionalized in a mental hospital.
- You Do Not Have to Say Anything
- You Meddling Kids: While being arrested, the villain calls out the heroes who exposed them for their crimes.
