"Criminal" is about guilt after power has already worked. Apple has described the song as feeling bad for getting something easily by using sexuality, and the lyric situation fits that: at 0:21 the speaker confesses badness, by 0:38 admits harm done to someone vulnerable, and by 0:47 wants suffering, guidance, and a way back into truth. The chorus at 1:03 turns guilt into a request for a defense, and at 1:17 the wronged lover becomes the measure of love itself.

The bridge at 2:46 makes the strategy explicit. Law, performance, lover, angel, and devil all appear in one scene. "Criminal" finally means confession as leverage: shame that wants to be judged, desire that still wants control, and music that refuses to separate punishment from appetite.