Understanding the Criminal Justice System

These flashcards cover essential vocabulary related to the themes of crime, criminal justice, race, and socio-economic factors from the lecture notes.

Crime

Any behavior, action, or omission that the State can prosecute and punish. Constantly changing to fit the State’s need to ensure inequality to ensure the system of capitalism (need poor to function). Will criminalize anything to keep the means of production safe.

Criminalization

The process of making an action or behavior illegal. Is inherently radicalized. It often targets marginalized communities to maintain social order and control.

Criminal Justice System (CJS)

The system of law enforcement involved in apprehending, prosecuting, defending, sentencing, and punishing those suspected or convicted of criminal offenses.

Mass Incarceration

The phenomenon of an unprecedentedly high number of incarcerated individuals, especially notable since the late 20^{th} century. It is significantly influenced by policies like determinate sentencing, mandatory minimums, and 'three strikes' laws, alongside the 'War on Drugs,' leading to disproportionate impacts on certain demographics

Determinate Sentencing

A sentencing structure where jail or prison sentences cannot be reviewed or changed. Uses a point system to determine parole. Mandated on the state level.

Truth in Sentencing

Legal requirement mandating that offenders serve a substantial portion of their sentences before being eligible for parole. At least 75-100% of sentence to be released on good behavior.

Mandatory Minimum

A set amount of imprisonment required for certain crimes, regardless of individual circumstances. Federally mandated. Took discretion away from judges.

3 Strikes Law

A law that mandates severe penalties for individuals convicted of three felonies, possibly leading to life sentences with no possibility of parole, Reformed in 2022 for the third offense needing to be violent. Mandated on a federal level

13th Amendment

The amendment that abolished slavery, except as punishment for a crime. Allowed for black people to become enslaved again.

Intersectionality

A concept explaining how various social identities (like race, gender, class) intersect and affect individual experiences. This is especially important when it comes to the CJS (connections, identity, and class play a big role in navigating the CJS).

Colorism

Discrimination based on skin color, particularly within a racial or ethnic group.

War on Drugs

A campaign initiated in the 1980s aimed at reducing illegal drug use through punitive measures. Took social health issues and made them crime issues. 

Racial Profiling

The practice of targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on their race or ethnicity. Allowed under Terry v. Ohio (allows stop and frisk with “reasonable suspicion” i.e. they fit the stereotype

Neoliberalism

An economic approach that promotes free markets, deregulation, and reduction of government spending. Led to a cut in government welfare spending.

Caste System

A social stratification system that categorizes people into hierarchical groups based on socio-economic status.

Surveillance

A technique of governance that involves systematic monitoring and data collection, often by state or corporate entities, to observe, track, and regulate individual and group behavior. It promotes self-discipline by creating a perceived sense of constant observation, leading individuals to self-censor or conform to societal norms. This technique disproportionately affects marginalized communities, particularly people of color, through practices like targeted policing, digital monitoring, and predictive algorithms, intensifying existing inequalities within the criminal justice system.

Panopticon

A theoretical and architectural design for an institutional building, primarily a prison, conceived by English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham in the late 18^{th} century. Its core feature is a central observation tower from which a single watchman can observe all inmates, who are housed in cells arranged radially around the tower. Makes it so you cannot tell whether they are being watched at any given moment, creating an "omnipresent" — though unverifiable — surveillance. This is intended to induce self-discipline and conformity among the subjects, making it a powerful tool for social control.

Social Control

Mechanisms, strategies, and activities that regulate individual and group behavior to conform to societal norms. These can be formal, such as laws, policies, and the criminal justice system, or informal, like social pressure, education, and cultural expectations. Given that many societal norms and institutions are historically shaped by and often prioritize a dominant white perspective, social control inherently serves to police and control people of color. This manifest through various means including racial profiling, discriminatory enforcement of laws, and disproportionate surveillance, thereby intensifying existing power imbalances and systemic inequalities.

Community Policing

A strategy of policing designed to foster collaboration and positive relationships between law enforcement and community members. While ostensibly aimed at improving public safety and trust, this approach can, in practice, serve as a sophisticated mechanism of social control, particularly within communities of color. By increasing police presence, gathering intelligence through engagement, and influencing community norms, it can subtly reinforce existing power structures, monitor and regulate behavior, and preemptively suppress dissent within these communities under the guise of cooperation, often leading to intensified surveillance and criminalization without necessarily addressing systemic issues of inequality.

Militarization of Police

The process where police adopt military equipment and tactics to enforce the law. Started in the 1960s as a response to protests and riots. This trend includes the use of armored vehicles, weaponry, and tactical training, aiming to enhance police capabilities in high-risk situations but often leading to increased community tensions and perceptions of aggression.

Broken Windows Theory

A theory that suggests visible signs of disorder and neglect cause an increase in crime. Invites the police to enter the community which leads to an increase in arrests for petty crimes and is based on the idea that addressing minor offenses helps prevent more serious crimes. This approach can disproportionately target marginalized communities, leading to over-policing and reinforcing systemic inequalities.

Felon Disenfranchisement

The loss of voting rights due to felony convictions. Is one way that relegates people of color to permanent second-class citizenship. It often disproportionately affects minority groups and perpetuates cycles of poverty and disenfranchisement by limiting access to political power and representation.

Plea Bargaining

Negotiation in a criminal case where the defendant pleads guilty to a lesser charge to receive a lighter sentence. This is how the majority of cases go for people of color even if they are not guilty, think about Kalif Browder.

Legal Discrimination

Systematic disparities in legal treatment that are based on an individual's race, class, gender, ethnicity, or other social identities. These disparities manifest across various stages of the criminal justice system, including arrest rates, charging decisions, access to quality legal representation, jury selection, sentencing outcomes, and parole eligibility. Such discrimination can lead to harsher penalties, longer sentences, and increased rates of incarceration for marginalized groups, perpetuating cycles of inequality and undermining the principle of equal justice under the law.

Welfare State

A government system that provides social and economic support to its citizens. From Welfare to Warfare shift in 1960s with the War on Crime/Drugs and militarization of the police.

Civil Rights

The rights of citizens to political and social freedom and equality. Limited and taken away by incarceration.

Institutional Racism

Policies and practices within institutions that create or continue racial inequality. Present in the CJS and policing tactics.

Social Death

The loss of all social connections and recognition due to incarceration or other forms of marginalization. Disenfranchisement, no eligibility for grants, limited socio economic mobility, limited education.

Racial Control Time line

Slavery, 13th Amendment, Black Codes, Jim Crow Laws, Terry v. Ohio, War on Crime, War on Drugs, 1994 Crime Bill

POC Timeline

Slave, share cropper, industrial worker, inner-city underclass, prisoner, permanent second-class citizen

The Effects of Felony

loose access to cultural capital (access to higher education, stable jobs, social + Econ mobility = stunned), excluded from welfare, banned political participation (no passports, no voting in prison, some fines required to vote Florida=ex, have to be off parole)

Transition of Punishment to mind vs body

Enlightenment ideas (questioning the legitimacy of the King ex: Focault), shift in labor needs (need bodies to keep up with industrialization), public spectacle undermined the legitimacy of institutions (the social contract- give up rights for protection + means to succeed) created disciplined bodies ready for the workforce (prevented uprisings by emphasizing complacency) chained the mind and the body subsequently

Key forms of early surveillance

slave passes, original slave patrols, wanted posters, plantations, slave ships, census, controlling images

Stono Rebellion

largest slave rebellion in North America provoked new surveillance technology, mandated registration including biometrics (tracking)

Modern Police

unified, centralized control, specialized duties, standard training, 24 hours, salaried , preventative rather than reactive

Frank Pledge

colonial order, decentralized authority, group accountability, for small communities, serves as an early form of policing in England where each member of a hundred was responsible for the behavior of others.

Sheriff

created by English Sovereigns, dealt with frank pledge system, enforced military fiscal and judicial matters

Night Watch

public position all 18 yr men, look for fires and improper behavior, suppressing riots, detain suspicious people, look for disorderly behavior to prevent crime, no training, no equipment, inconsistent, only operated at night, easily corrupted

Sir Robert Peel

give modern police legitimacy, London Metro Police, 24 hours, influence by Irish Colonial Rule

US policing 17 +18th centuries

London Metro influence, full of corruption,

Southern Police to Urban North

prevent rebellion of working class, prevent gatherings of black people and immigrant populations, slave patrols began to resemble modern police model

19th Century Police

centralized, mayor had appointment power (managing political agenda), potential for political corruption

Personal Responsibilities and Work Opportunity Act

under Clinton forced the poor off well fare if not actively seeking jobs, effects: another form of surveilling people of color and increased incarcerations