[adventured]

That's blatantly not true. The English language is overflowing with options, at different levels of character or crime, when it comes to describing people.

Murderer, killer, rapist, pedophile, wife beater, convict, criminal, felon, thief, liar, embezzler, con artist, forger, bum, hobo, dishonest, deceitful, traitor, unethical, petty criminal, cheat, scammer, scam artist, pick pocket, snake oil salesman, chiseler, crooked, unfaithful, drunk, addict.

And a thousand more various categories to toss people into (some refer to crimes, some refer to moral character or life situation, and some blend multiple attributes depending on context).

If a person is a rapist, you call them a rapist and not a murderer, and people know the difference. If a person is a convicted thief, you can call them a petty criminal, and nobody would confuse that with being a serial killer.

[realusername]

Oh yeah sure, there is tons of words to describe criminals, but the problem is the word "criminal" itself works for all of them, if you look at the news and how people speak, you never see those words, you only see "it's a crime to do something" or "this guy is a "criminal".