Jarima

Jarima is a term most commonly encountered as a transliteration of the Arabic noun جريمة, which means "crime" or "offense." In Latin-script usage, it may appear as jarīmah or jarima. The word appears across Arabic-language legal, media, and everyday discourse to denote unlawful acts that are punishable by law.

The underlying Arabic root is j-r-m (ج-ر-م), associated with guilt, punishment, and wrongdoing. The noun form jarīmah (جريمة) is the abstract concept of crime, while related words include mujrim (مُجرِم) meaning "criminal" and jarā'im (جرائم) the plural form "crimes." This family of terms is used across legal and criminology contexts in Arabic-speaking regions.

In legal and criminological contexts, jarima is used in phrases describing types of crime or particular offenses, such as organized crime or violent crime. The definite article is often used in standard phrases, for example "الجريمة" meaning "the crime," while the indefinite form simply denotes a crime in general. The term appears in statutory language, police reporting, and news coverage within Arabic-speaking communities.

Beyond its primary Arabic meaning, Jarima may also be encountered as a personal name or place name in some communities, or as a transliteration of similarly sounding terms from other languages. When encountered outside Arabic contexts, the intended meaning depends on surrounding language and culture, so clarification may be needed to determine whether the reference is linguistic, legal, or cultural.

See also: Crime; Arabic language; Arabic morphology; mujrim.