Damaging the reputation of a person or a group of people by publishing or saying bad things about them that are not true. More specifically, saying words which amount to defamation is slander and defamation in other forms, such as printed words or images, is libel.

Otherwise known as a criminal code, is a document which compiles all, or a significant amount of, a particular jurisdiction’s criminal law. Typically, it will contain offences which are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties which might be imposed for those offences and some general provisions (such as definitions and prohibitions on retroactive prosecution).