low life 
noun [mass noun]
1People or activities characterized as being disreputable and often criminal: crackheads, loafers, and general Nineties low life...
- Pattaya is a tourist city and we cannot have such low-life criminals attacking tourists.
- Expect ripe language, prostitution, low-life characters, black marketeering, drug abuse and more - but there may be a little bit of romanticism even in this grim tale.
- Unlike other kinds of theft where the principal beneficiaries are the thief and other low-life cretins, here the person who benefits the most is another contractor.
1.1 (lowlife) [count noun] informal A criminal or disreputable person: he hangs out with lowlifes who cheat him at cards...
- And here's two scumbag lowlifes who kidnap her because they think her relatives have $150,000.
- I am unjustly persecuted, he is under suspicion, you are a criminal lowlife.
- Mary's used to taking care of lowlifes and criminals, so she has to be tough.
Derivatives
low-lifer
- These previously prime time westerns taught us that when the bad guys come into town to terrorise our families, the sheriff always rounds up the men willing to hop on a horse and go after these low-lifers.
- Typical of a Soderbergh movie is the assertion that most low-lifers are comedians at heart.
- These low-lifers work, drive and shop among us without conscience, in every area of the judicial system.