Czy istnieje przestępczość kryminalna? Kilka uwag o tautologii w policyjnej statystyce przestępczości i nie tylko

Existing literature has often hinted at a tautology in the classification of crime by the Polish police identifier przestępstwa kryminalne, which could be most accurately translated as ’criminal crimes‘ or ’criminal delinquency‘. Yet, the authors have so far been content with indicating its semantic redundancy and questions about the pleonasm’s function have never been asked. Meanwhile, the term has become widespread outside police sources, with many colleges even offering courses on ’criminal crime‘. Attempts to define “criminal crime” remain inconclusive - an unsettling finding, for the term has already forced its way into legal acts, scholarly works, and court sentences. Semantic analysis of it could be considered as a starting point for the disclosure of various far-reaching connotations: ’Criminal crime‘ labels stereotypical offenders and distinguishes them from white-collar and road crime perpetrators. It implies that those guilty of an act not constituting a “criminal crime” are not criminals anyhow. The term is also frequently found in hate speech and popular discourse on crime. Finally, alternatives such as ’blue-collar’, ’street‘ and ’traditional crime‘ are discussed.