IELTS Vocabulary for Crime and Law: Collocations for Band 7+

Crime and the law is one of the most reliable topics in the whole IELTS exam. It surfaces in Speaking Part 1 ("Is your neighbourhood safe?"), in Part 3 discussions about prisons and youth crime, and in Writing Task 2 essays about punishment, rehabilitation and prevention. Because the theme is so predictable, examiners have heard the same recycled phrases thousands of times. What actually lifts your band is not a longer word list but accurate, natural collocations used in the right place. This guide gives you the crime and law vocabulary that moves your score, and shows you how to deploy it.

Why This Vocabulary Matters

Lexical Resource is one of the four equally weighted marking criteria in both Speaking and Writing, so it accounts for roughly a quarter of your score in each. The band descriptors do not reward rare or dramatic words for their own sake — they reward range, precision and natural collocation. A Band 5 candidate says "do a crime"; a Band 7 candidate says "commit an offence" or "break the law." The idea is identical, but the second sounds like a real English speaker rather than a translated phrase.

Learn Collocations, Not Single Words

Legal English pairs words together in fixed ways you cannot guess from grammar. You commit a crime, you do not "make" a crime; a judge hands down a sentence; a criminal serves time. Memorising these chunks is what keeps your English fluent under pressure. Group them by sub-topic so you can pull the right set the moment a question lands.

Offences and Offenders

• commit a crime / an offence — the standard verb; never "do" a crime
• break the law; a law-abiding citizen (someone who obeys the law)
• petty crime (minor: shoplifting, vandalism) vs serious / violent crime
• a repeat / first-time offender; reoffend — commit another crime after release
• white-collar crime — fraud, embezzlement and other non-violent financial crime

Police and the Courts

• arrest a suspect; charge someone with an offence
• stand trial; be found guilty / not guilty; acquit (declare not guilty)
• a fair trial; the burden of proof; a miscarriage of justice (a wrongful conviction)
• hand down a sentence; bring someone to justice

Punishment and Sentencing

• serve a prison sentence; be sentenced to five years
• a custodial sentence (prison) vs a community sentence / community service
• impose a fine; be released on parole; a suspended sentence
• capital punishment (the death penalty); a deterrent — something that discourages crime

Prevention and Society (for Task 2)

• tackle / crack down on crime; reduce the crime rate
• rehabilitate offenders; reintegrate into society; cut reoffending
• the root causes of crime — poverty, unemployment, lack of education
• tackle crime at its source; invest in crime prevention; increase police presence

Model Sentences You Can Adapt

Vocabulary only earns marks inside a natural sentence. Notice how the collocations below carry the meaning without any forced "big" words:

• Speaking Part 1: "My area is pretty safe — there's a bit of petty crime like vandalism, but nothing serious, and there's a visible police presence at night."
• Speaking Part 3: "I think prisons should focus on rehabilitating offenders rather than just punishing them, because helping people reintegrate into society is what really cuts reoffending."
• Writing Task 2: "Rather than simply imposing longer custodial sentences, governments should tackle the root causes of crime, since poverty and unemployment drive many first-time offenders."

Each of these would strengthen the Lexical Resource band without a single memorised idiom sounding artificial. If you want to see how your own essay scores on this criterion, paste it into our free AI IELTS essay checker for a criterion-by-criterion estimate.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

1. "Do" a crime. The verb is always commit. "He did a crime" is a classic slip that costs accuracy marks.
2. Confusing the people. Keep suspect (accused), defendant (on trial), offender and convict (found guilty) distinct — precision is marked.
3. Over-dramatic vocabulary. Reaching for words like "heinous" or "atrocious" in every sentence sounds forced; natural collocations score higher than rare adjectives.
4. Ignoring register. "Cops" and "crook" are too informal for Task 2 — use the police and offender / criminal in academic writing.

How to Practise

Do not try to memorise all of these at once. Pick one sub-topic, write three or four of your own sentences using its collocations, and say them aloud until they feel automatic. Then recycle them across question types — a sentencing collocation from a Part 3 answer can reappear in a Task 2 essay on punishment. Build the same habit for other frequent themes, such as the language in our guide to IELTS vocabulary for technology. Rehearse full answers on the IELTS Speaking questions bank and draft timed essays from the IELTS Writing questions page. Precise, natural collocations used with confidence are exactly what separates a Band 6 from a Band 7 in Lexical Resource.