Writing: Do You Capitalize Crimes?

I’m writing about someone who did something reckless, and that could have endangered others. Is she charged with reckless endangerment? Or is she charged with Reckless Endangerment?

Thanks.

Lower case; no capitals.

Not even capital crimes? :stuck_out_tongue:

Wouldn’t that depend on the sentence?

This is my vote (if we’re voting) and I propose that it is a context issue.

Whoosh! :smiley:

My take is that if you are referring to a specific, named offense that is defined in some legal code, then that takes capital letters. If you are referring to a general concept of a transgression against morality in general, then that takes all lowercase letters.

E.g.: “John committed theft. He was arrested and charged with Petty Theft Misdemeanor”.

The first sentence refers to theft in a general moral sense, disconnected from any specific legal codification of the concept. The second sentence refers to a specific statute under which a person can be formally charged under certain circumstances that would likely constitute a transgression against the moral concept of theft.

or

“Mary was caught trying to sell cocaine. She was charged with Possession of a Controlled Substance with Intent to Distribute in the First Degree.”

That was my thought as well, but I discussed it with my editor on Skype and he said lowercase, unless quoting an indictment. YMMV.