In flagrante delicto

In flagrante delicto (Latin for "in blazing offence"), sometimes simply in flagrante ("in blazing"), is a legal term used to indicate that a criminal has been caught in the act of committing an offence (compare corpus delicti).

[1][2] Aside from the legal meaning, the Latin term is often used colloquially as euphemism for someone being caught in the midst of sexual activity.

[3][4] The phrase combines the present active participle flagrāns (flaming or blazing) with the noun dēlictum (offence, misdeed, or crime).

[8] On occasion, governments with such constitutional requirements have been accused of stretching the definition of in flagrante in order to carry out illegal arrests.

[10] In Japan, the phrase's translation, Genkōhan (現行犯), is used to refer to citizen's arrest, and is listed under Section 213 of the Code of Criminal Procedure as such.