Legal Definitions - predicate offense

Definition: A predicate offense is a violation of the law or a crime, often a minor one. It can refer to any crime or misdemeanor, or be used in a specific sense as synonymous with felony or misdemeanor. It can also signify a crime of lesser grade or an act not indictable but punishable summarily or by the forfeiture of a penalty.

Examples:

• Acquisitive Offense: An offense characterized by the unlawful appropriation of another's property. This can refer to a variety of crimes such as larceny.
• Allied Offense: A crime with elements so similar to those of another that the commission of one is automatically the commission of the other.
• Anticipatory Offense: An inchoate offense, which means a crime that has not yet been completed. It refers to a crime that has been planned but not yet carried out.
• Arrestable Offense: In English law, an offense for which the punishment is fixed by law or for which a statute authorizes imprisonment for five years, or an attempt to commit such an offense.

The examples illustrate how predicate offenses can refer to different types of crimes, from minor offenses like larceny to more serious ones like arrestable offenses. They can also refer to crimes that have not yet been completed, such as anticipatory offenses. The term is used to describe a wide range of criminal activities that violate the law.