The study of crime, criminals, law enforcement, and punishment.

Criminology includes the study of all aspects of crime and law enforcement —criminal psychology, the social setting of crime, prohibition and prevention, investigation and detection, capture and punishment. Thus, many of the people involved—legislators, social workers, probation officers, judges, etc.—could possibly be considered *criminologists,* though the word usually refers only to scholars and researchers.

To remove or reduce the criminal status of.

*Decriminalization* of various “victimless crimes”—crimes that don't directly harm others, such as private gambling and drug-taking—has been recommended by conservatives as well as liberals, who often claim that it would ease the burden on the legal system, decrease the amount of money flowing to criminals, and increase personal liberty. Decriminalization is not the same as legalization; decriminalization may still call for a small fine (like a traffic ticket), and may apply only to use or possession of something, leaving the actual sale of goods or services illegal.

To show evidence of involvement in a crime or a fault.

Testimony may incriminate a suspect by placing him at the scene of a crime, and *incriminating* evidence is the kind that strongly links him to it. But the word doesn't always refer to an actual crime. We can say, for instance, that a virus has been incriminated as the cause of a type of cancer, or that video games have been incriminated in the decline in study skills among young people.

(1) An accusation in answer to an accusation made against oneself. (2) The making of such an accusation.

Defending oneself from a verbal attack by means of a counterattack is as natural as physical self-defense. So a disaster often brings recriminations among those connected with it, and divorces and child-custody battles usually involve recriminations between husband and wife. An actual crime isn't generally involved, but it may be; when two suspects start exchanging angry recriminations after they've been picked up, it often leads to one of them turning against the other in court.

A formal or official act of approving; praise, usually given with pleasure or enthusiasm.

*Approbation* is a noun form of *approve*, but approbation is usually stronger than mere *approval*. An official commendation for bravery is an example of approbation; getting reelected to office by a wide margin indicates public approbation; and the social approbation received by a star quarterback in high school usually makes all the pain worthwhile.

The process of proving in court that the will of someone who has died is valid, and of administering the estate of a dead person.

Ever since people have written wills, those wills have had to be proven genuine by a judge. Without a probate process, greedy acquaintances or relatives could write up a fake will stating that all the person's wealth belonged to them. To establish a will as genuine, it must generally be witnessed and stamped by someone officially licensed to do so (though wills have sometimes been approved even when they were just written on a piece of scrap paper, with no witnesses). Today we use *probate* more broadly to mean everything that's handled in *probate court*, a special court that oversees the handling of estates (the money and property left when someone dies), making sure that everyone eventually receives what is properly theirs.

Absolute honesty and uprightness.

Probity is a quality the public generally hopes for in its elected officials but doesn't always get. Bankers, for example, have traditionally been careful to project an air of probity, even though banking scandals and bailouts have made this harder than ever. An aura of probity surrounds such public figures as Warren Buffett and Bill Moyers, men to whom many Americans would entrust their children and their finances.

A person of thoroughly bad character.

The related verb of *reprobate* is *reprove*, which originally, as the opposite of *approve*, meant “to condemn.” Thus, a reprobate, as the word was used in Biblical translations, was someone condemned to hell. But for many years *reprobate* has been said in a tone of joshing affection, usually to describe someone of doubtful morals but good humor. Shakespeare's great character Falstaff—a lazy, lying, boastful, sponging drunkard—is the model of a reprobate, but still everyone's favorite Shakespeare character.