Comparative Policing, Courts, and Globalization – Key Vocabulary

These vocabulary flashcards cover essential terms and concepts from the lecture on comparative policing models, research methods, societal styles, court systems, police system types, policing models, the need for innovation, and globalization.

Comparative

A descriptor indicating the degree to which one person, thing, or entity possesses a quality greater or lesser than another.

Police

Organizations responsible for maintaining public order and safety, enforcing the law, and preventing, detecting, and investigating crime.

Policing

The collective functions of maintaining order, enforcing laws, and investigating crimes.

System

An orderly combination of parts functioning as a whole according to rules or principles.

Comparative Police System

The study and comparison of different countries’ police structures to gain insights for international crime-control policy.

Safari Method

A comparative research approach in which the researcher personally visits foreign agencies to study their policing systems.

Collaborative Method

A comparative research approach that relies on communication with foreign scholars or practitioners to learn about their policing systems.

Alertness Crime Theory

Posits that increased public reporting of crime heightens demand for police effectiveness.

Economic or Migration Theory

Attributes crime levels to unrestrained migration and overpopulation in urban ghettos and slums.

Opportunity Theory

Argues that rising living standards and careless guardianship expand opportunities for crime.

Demographic Theory

Links surges in youth populations (baby booms) to development of delinquent subcultures.

Deprivation Theory

Holds that unequal progress creates unrealistic expectations among the poor and frustration among the affluent.

Modernization Theory

Sees crime problems as a by-product of increasingly complex modern societies.

Anomie and Synomie Theory

Suggests that new progressive norms erode traditional cohesion, leading to social disintegration.

Folk-Community Society

A social order with little codified law, unspecialized policing, and sporadically harsh punishment (early Roman gentiles, some African tribes, Puritan settlements).

Urban-Commercial Society

Uses written civil law, specialized religious and royal police, and inconsistent punishments (historic continental Europe).

Urban-Industrial Society

Features codified behavioral laws, specialized property policing, and market-based incentives and disincentives (England, U.S.).

Bureaucratic Society

Characterized by extensive legal codes, police focus on political crime/terrorism, and over-criminalization with crowded prisons (modern bureaucratic states).

Adversarial Court System

Court model where the accused is presumed innocent; fact-finding occurs through contested courtroom proceedings (e.g., United States).

Inquisitorial Court System

Court model where the accused is initially presumed guilty; judges lead investigations aimed at confirming legal guilt and eliciting apology or mitigation (e.g., continental Europe).

Common Law System

‘Anglo-American’ justice relying on adversarial trials and oral evidence; found in the U.S., England, Australia, New Zealand.

Civil Law System

‘Romano-Germanic’ justice with inquisitorial procedures and fewer rights for the accused; prevalent in continental Europe and Japan.

Socialist System

Marxist-Leninist justice emphasizing rehabilitation and administrative decision-making; law is equated with state policy (parts of Africa and Asia).

Islamic System

Muslim or Arabic justice derived from Koranic interpretation, often guided by natural justice rather than positive law; may employ Sharia punishments.

Continental Police System

Model measuring effectiveness by the number of arrests and incarcerated offenders.

Modern Police System

Model gauging success by low crime rates and public satisfaction with peace and order.

Innovative Policing

The pursuit of modernized strategies and technologies to meet contemporary crime-fighting demands.

Globalization

Worldwide integration of economies, societies, culture, and politics enabled by advances in communication, transportation, and infrastructure.

Positive Law

Law created by legitimate authority (human-made statutes) as opposed to natural law principles.

Sharia

Islamic legal framework prescribing moral, civil, and criminal rules derived from the Koran.