criminal law and procedure

Suppression of evidence is a pretrial proceeding to prevent evidence from being shown at trial, which could be lawful or unlawful. 

• evidence

Surveillance is the act of observing another in order to gather evidence. Surveillance is one of the most common methods law enforcement officials use to investigate suspects and gather evidence. It can be accomplished with the knowledge of the person being surveilled (overt surveillance) or without (covert surveillance). 

A suspect is a person who is believed to have committed a crime, but has not yet been found guilty.

In criminal law, a suspended sentence is an alternative to imprisonment where a judge may partially or entirely suspend the convicted individual's prison or jail sentence so long as they fulfill certain conditions.

Swindle is a slang term meaning to dispossess someone of money or property through fraud or deceit.

[Last reviewed in April of 2026 by the Wex Definitions Team]

• lawsuits-court
• criminal law

Synthetic cannabinoids refer to a class of man-made molecules that are chemically similar to molecules that appear naturally in cannabis plants. Synthetic cannabinoids are intended to bind the same receptors in the brain as naturally occurring cannabinoids, such as Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) or cannabidiol (CBD). 

In criminal law, tainted evidence, also called evidence of taint, is evidence obtained by unlawful means, such as a search conducted without a valid warrant.

Hostage taking is when someone “seizes or detains and threatens to kill, to injure, or to continue to detain another person in order to compel a third person or a governmental organization to do or abstain from doing any act as an explicit or implicit condition for the release of the person detained, or attempts or conspires to do so.” See: 18 U.S. Code § 1203 - Hostage taking

Tax evasion is the use of illegal means to avoid paying taxes. Typically, tax evasion schemes involve an individual or corporation misrepresenting their income to the Internal Revenue Service.

In a criminal trial, temporary insanity is a defense that can be raised to assert that, at the time of the commission of the offense, the defendant, as a result of severe mental disease or defect, was unable to appreciate the nature or wrongfulness of the defendant's acts. This defense is commonly used to contest the specific intent or mens rea required for certain offenses.