How marvelously old-fashioned. A criminal is a criminal because some legislature or regulatory body decided there should be a law or regulation prohibiting something he subsequently did. Period.
In some cases the law is an instantiation of some moral precept so there might be some connection to what the author wrote. In others the action is something like importing wood without permits or building a house on one’s own land (which someone far away decided is a “protected wetland” even though there is nothing more than a thin stream on the back lot which hasn’t flooded in decades) or carrying a firearm for one’s own protection.
I’m trying to find the etymology of crime,....to crimination,...purpose of the legislative branch is to ‘discriminate’ between that which is legitimate and that which is illegitimate.
Most etymologies track it back to Latin “Criminatus” in the 1500s.
I would think it would be traceable to either the Greek or Hebrew Scriptures, especially in Leviticus.