The term you're looking for here is "mass noun" or "uncountable noun", and... well I was going to say "no, it can't", but searching does turn up some uses, so, uh, I guess people are saying that now and I was wrong? It must be pretty new; I'm not seeing it in dictionaries.
(Note that just because "crime" can be used as both a count noun and a mass noun doesn't mean "grift" can be! Most nouns are just one or the other, not both. Like Wiktionary has "crime" as both but "grift" as count only. But it seems like this new uncountable sense of "grift" is out there now, so people will have to update the dictionaries...)
(Note that just because "crime" can be used as both a count noun and a mass noun doesn't mean "grift" can be! Most nouns are just one or the other, not both. Like Wiktionary has "crime" as both but "grift" as count only. But it seems like this new uncountable sense of "grift" is out there now, so people will have to update the dictionaries...)