A crime is only a crime if it's a crime. #research

I may be biased because of my background, but it drives me nuts when an author writes about a crime, but doesn't have a solid grasp of the basic rules of crime and the criminal justice system.
Repeat after me: A crime is only a crime if it's a crime. As authors, we can't just make something up and hope readers won't notice the crime your character committed wasn't actually a chargeable offense. While we do have creative license, our plots need to be realistic, especially if the book is s...