Teaching crime vocabulary doesn’t have to feel heavy or difficult. With the right activities, this topic can become engaging, dynamic, and even fun for your students. That’s why I’ve created a brand-new pack of 80 Crime Vocabulary Taboo Cards designed for B1–B2 learners (you can also try them with strong A2 students). They’re perfect for practicing key words like victim, witness, ransom, identity theft, burglary, and dozens more.
Taboo is one of the best activities for meaningful speaking practice. Students must explain a word without using the “taboo” expressions, which naturally pushes them to paraphrase, use synonyms, and think creatively. This makes the activity ideal for improving fluency, activating vocabulary, and encouraging teamwork or friendly competition.
These cards work beautifully on their own, but they also go wonderfully with our Crime ESL Lesson, where students explore real cases, learn key vocabulary, and practise past tenses in context. The lesson is currently at B1/B2 level, and I’m already preparing an A2+ version with simpler language and easier discussion tasks — coming very soon!
The full set of Taboo cards includes:
- crime vocabulary (e.g., theft, arson, vandalism)
- criminals (e.g., burglar, smuggler, hacker)
- verbs connected to crime (e.g., break into, arrest, investigate)
- legal and courtroom vocabulary (e.g., evidence, witness, jury, sentence)
Use these cards as a warm-up, pair task, end-of-lesson game, revision activity, or as a speaking station. No matter how you apply them, they bring great energy into the lesson and help your students use vocabulary actively and confidently.
Enjoy teaching — stay tuned for the A2+ crime lesson update!
Also – check our other taboo card games!
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