One definition of criminality is
a criminal act
which is exactly what a crime is. I realize that both crime and criminality can be collective nouns for acts of unlawfulness as when we say
Violent crime in the US has dropped over the last two decades.
And here's a link to a site that discusses
the possible connection between environmental lead levels and the drop in criminality
But I'm confused as to whether there's a difference between the two words. For instance, here's a book title
Environmental Crime and Criminality: Theoretical and Practical Issues
If the two words meant the same thing, the inclusion of both in the title would be redundant. This implies a difference. But here's another book title
Crimes by the Capitalist State: An Introduction to State Criminality
The colon implies that the following words are a restatement of the foregoing words and thus that the two words mean the same thing.
Can someone explain this to me?
Best Answer
You might find the Collins dictionary entries helpful:
And the law related ones for crime
For criminality it lists the state of being criminal first. Generally dictionaries try to sort their order of meanings according to how much a word is used that way. Additionally they added rare to the second meaning, indicating even less usage of that way.
Crime on the other hand primarily describes singular acts and all generalizations second.
Etymology-wise they have two different origins criminality stems from the French criminalité (1610s), while [crime] is older: mid-13c., "sinfulness," from Old French crimne