Offense is the generic word, with the qualification that it means something lesser than the other words, when no aggravating attributes are added. Sin is an offense against divine law. Infraction is an offense against human law. Crime is an enormous offense. Outrage [1] adds even more to the idea of crime, whether in quality or in quantity: we say in quantity, because outrage is more often used in the plural than in the singular; and it is rare to apply this word to someone who has only committed one crime.

1. While in this context the most literal translation for the French (“forfait”) would have been “infamy” or “heinous crime,” I have tried to maintain the original’s countable quality and etymological sense of going “outside” or “beyond” what is acceptable.