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Corruption vs Crime - What's the difference?

corruption | crime |

As nouns the difference between corruption and crime

is that corruption is the act of corrupting or of impairing integrity, virtue, or moral principle; the state of being corrupted or debased; loss of purity or integrity; depravity; wickedness; impurity; bribery while crime is a specific act committed in violation of the law.

As a verb crime is

to commit crime(s).

corruption

English

(wikipedia corruption)

Noun

  • The act of corrupting or of impairing integrity, virtue, or moral principle; the state of being corrupted or debased; loss of purity or integrity; depravity; wickedness; impurity; bribery.
  • * (Henry Hallam) The Constitutional History of England
    • It was necessary, by exposing the gross corruptions of monasteries, . . . to exite popular indignation against them.
  • * (George Bancroft)
    • They abstained from some of the worst methods of corruption usual to their party in its earlier days.
  • * {{quote-book, year=2006, author=(Edwin Black), title=Internal Combustion
    • , chapter=1 citation , passage=But electric vehicles and the batteries that made them run became ensnared in corporate scandals, fraud, and monopolistic corruption that shook the confidence of the nation and inspired automotive upstarts.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=(Gary Younge)
    • , volume=188, issue=26, page=18, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Hypocrisy lies at heart of Manning prosecution , passage=WikiLeaks did not cause these uprisings but it certainly informed them. The dispatches revealed details of corruption and kleptocracy that many Tunisians suspected, but could not prove, and would cite as they took to the streets.}}
  • The act of corrupting or making putrid, or state of being corrupt or putrid; decomposition or disorganization, in the process of putrefaction; putrefaction; deterioration.
  • The product of corruption; putrid matter.
  • The decomposition of biological matter.
  • Bribing.
  • (computing) The destruction of data by manipulation of parts of it, either by deliberate or accidental human action or by imperfections in storage or transmission media.
  • The act of changing, or of being changed, for the worse; departure from what is pure, simple, or correct; as, a corruption of style; corruption in language.
  • (linguistics) A debased or nonstandard form of a word, expression, or text, resulting from misunderstanding, transcription error, mishearing, etc.
  • Something that is evil but is supposed to be good.
  • * (Francis Bacon)
    • The inducing and accelerating of putrefaction is a subject of very universal inquiry; for corruption is a reciprocal to generation.

    Usage notes

    * Corruption, when applied to officers, trustees, etc., signifies the inducing a violation of duty by means of pecuniary considerations. — (Abbott)

    Synonyms

    * (act of corrupting or making putrid) adulteration, contamination, debasement, defilement, dirtying, soiling, tainting * (state of being corrupt or putrid) decay, decomposition, deterioration, putrefaction, rotting * decay, putrescence, rot * (sense) * (state of being corrupted or debased) debasement, depravity, evil, impurity, sinfulness, wickedness * (act of changing for the worse) deterioration, worsening * (act of being changed for the worse) destroying, ruining, spoiling * (departure from what is pure or correct) deterioration, erosion * bastardization

    Derived terms

    * corruption of blood (Webster 1913) ----

    crime

    English

    (wikipedia crime)

    Noun

  • (countable) A specific act committed in violation of the law.
  • (uncountable) The practice or habit of committing crimes.
    • Crime doesn’t pay.
  • (uncountable) criminal acts collectively.
  • Any great wickedness or sin; iniquity.
  • * Alexander Pope
    • No crime' was thine, if 'tis no ' crime to love.
  • (obsolete) That which occasions crime.
  • * Spenser
    • the tree of life, the crime of our first father's fall

    Usage notes

    * Adjectives often applied to "crime": organized, brutal, terrible, horrible, heinous, horrendous, hideous, financial, sexual, international.

    Synonyms

    * (criminal acts collectively) delinquency, crime rate, criminality

    Hyponyms

    * * * * * * *

    Derived terms

    * crime against humanity * crime against nature * crimebuster * crime index * crime mapping * crime rate * criminal * criminal law * criminal record * criminology * decriminalization * international crime * organised crime / organized crime * sexual crime * war crime * white collar crime

    Verb

    (en-verb)
  • To commit (s).
  • * 1987 , Robert Sampson, Yesterday's Faces: From the Dark Side (ISBN 0879723637), page 61:
    • If, during the 1920s, the master criminal was a gamester, criming for self expression, during the 1930s he performed in other ways for other purposes.

    See also

    * offence * sin * administrative infraction (less serious violation of the law) ----