In flagrante delicto In flagrante delicto In flagrante delicto (Latin: "in blazing offence"), or simply in flagrante, a legal term, indicates that a criminal has been caught in the act of committing an offence (compare ). The colloquial "caught " or "caught rapid" are English equivalents. The phrase combines the present active participle "flagrāns" (flaming or blazing) with the noun "dēlictum" (offence, misdeed, or crime). In this term the Latin preposition "in", not indicating motion, takes the ablative. The closest literal translation would be "in blazing offence", where "blazing" is a metaphor for vigorous, highly visible action. In Japan, the phrase's translation, "Genkōhan"
Accessory (legal term) and "accessory-after-the-fact" were used in England and the United States but are now more common in historical than in current usage. The spelling accessary is occasionally used, but only in this legal sense. The English legal authority William Blackstone, in his "Commentaries", defined an accessory as: He goes on to define an "accessory-before-the-fact" in these words: and an "accessory-after-the-fact" as follows: The "Criminal Code" has several sections which deal with accessory to offences: For these purposes, "abetting" means "to encourage or set on" and an "abettor" is "an instigator or setter on, one who promotes or procures a crime to