law offender vs criminal

law offender and criminal both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
law offender	Yes	No	No	No
criminal	Yes	Yes	No	No

As nouns, criminal is a hypernym of law offender; that is, criminal is a word with a broader meaning than law offender:

law offender: someone who violates the law
criminal: someone who has committed a crime or has been legally convicted of a crime

Other hypernyms of law offender include crook, felon, malefactor, outlaw.

law offender (noun)	criminal (noun)
someone who violates the law	someone who has committed a crime or has been legally convicted of a crime

law offender (adjective)	criminal (adjective)
	guilty of crime or serious offense
	involving or being or having the nature of a crime
	bringing or deserving severe rebuke or censure