| Title | Director | Cast | Country | Genre/Notes |
| 1895 |
| The Arrest of a Pickpocket | Birt Acres | | United Kingdom | Short film |
| 1900 |
| Sherlock Holmes Baffled | Arthur Marvin | | United States | Short film |
| 1902 |
| Bluebeard | Georges Méliès | Georges Méliès, Jeanne d'Alcy | France | Short film |
| 1912 |
| The Musketeers of Pig Alley | D.W. Griffith | Alfred Paget, Walter Miller, Jack Pickford | United States | Short film |
| 1913 |
| Fantômas | Louis Feuillade | René Navarre, Edmond Breon, Georges Melchior, Renee Carl | France | Film serial |
| Traffic in Souls | George Loane Tucker | Jane Gail, Ethel Grandin, William H. Turner | United States | Crime drama[1] |
| 1915 |
| Les Vampires | Louis Feuillade | Jean Aymé, Marcel Lévesque, Musidora, Stacia Napierkowska | France | Film serial |
| Regeneration | Raoul Walsh | Rockliffe Fellowes, Anna Q. Nilsson, James A. Marcus, Carl Harbaugh | United States | Crime drama |
| 1920 |
| The Penalty | Wallace Worsley | Ethel Grey Terry, Milton Ross, Lon Chaney | United States | Crime drama |
| 1922 |
| Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler | Fritz Lang | Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Aud Egede Nissen, Gertrude Welcker, Alfred Abel | Germany | Master criminal film |
| 1923 |
| Bulldog Drummond | Oscar Apfel | Carlyle Blackwell, Evelyn Greeley | United Kingdom | |
| The Street | Karl Grune | Aud Egede-Nissen | Germany | Crime drama |
| White Tiger | Priscilla Dean | | United States | |
| 1925 |
| Bulldog Drummond's Third Round | | | United Kingdom | |
| The Pleasure Garden | Alfred Hitchcock | Virginia Valli, Carmelita Geraghty | United Kingdom | |
| 1927 |
| Chicago | Frank Urson | Phyllis Haver, Victor Varconi, Eugene Pallette, Virginia Bradford | United States | |
| The Return of Boston Blackie | Harry Hoyt | | United States | |
| Underworld | Josef von Sternberg | George Bancroft, Clive Brook, Evelyn Brent | United States | Crime drama, Gangster film |
| 1928 |
| The Big City | Tod Browning | Lon Chaney, Marceline Day, Betty Compson | United States | |
| The Dragnet | Josef von Sternberg, Helen Lewis | George Bancroft, Evelyn Brent, William Powell | United States | Crime drama |
| Ladies of the Mob | William Wellman | Clara Bow, Richard Arlen, Helen Lynch, Carl Gerard | United States | Crime drama |
| Lights of New York | Bryan Foy | Helene Costello, Cullen Landis, Gladys Brockwell | United States | |
| Me, Gangster | Raoul Walsh | Don Terry, June Collyer, Anders Randolf | United States | |
| The Racket | Lewis Milestone | Thomas Meighan, Marie Prevost, Louis Wolheim | United States | Crime drama, Gangster film |
| 1929 |
| Alibi | Roland West | Chester Morris, Harry Stubbs, Mae Busch | United States | |
| The Last Warning | Paul Leni | Laura La Plante, Montagu Love, Mack Swain, Roy D'Arcy | United States | |
| Thunderbolt | Josef von Sternberg, William Wyler | George Bancroft, Fay Wray, Richard Arlen | United States | Crime drama, Prison film |
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