0 past simple and past participle of criminalize
1 to make something illegal:
The law has criminalized prostitution but not got rid of it.
There is however no limit to the conduct that can be criminalized, when the legislature does not set minimum guidelines to govern law enforcement.
However, this statute was so vague it gave prosecutors almost carte blanche power to use in political and private situations which should not be criminalized.
The labor movement's cynicism about the law of conspiracy was heightened by the fact that it criminalized labor activities but not employer blacklists of union workingmen, which were also boycotts.
It is no objection under the harm principle that a harmless action was criminalized, nor even that an action with no tendency to cause harm was criminalized.
While collective movements of sisterhood and solidarity between female reformers and criminalized women are alluded to, discussions about them are left undeveloped.
The former were increasingly criminalized and stigmatized, at least on a rhetorical level.
It is not anything with the real nature of sleeping being criminalized here, and most addressees would probably understand the euphemism.
We cannot say that the one should be criminalized because it reduces a person's options or capabilities more than the other.
