Three different types of 'crime' are examined in this comprehensive study of criminal behaviour and law enforcement in two small Newfoundland fishing villages. The 'crimes' include acts deemed criminal by the rules and regulations of the state but not necessarily by local sentiment and acts that violate local norms but are not criminalized by the state. The descriptions of criminal activity and community sentiment are based on almost a decade of participant observation. Because the outports are so different from urban, industrial, capitalistic domains typically studied by those interested in crime, the study relates the unique expressions of outport criminal behaviour to patterns of settlement, developments in the fishery, the history of law enforcement, and cultural change.