Criminal Justice Systems and Law Lecture Notes

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering constitutional criminal procedure, courtroom dynamics, sentencing doctrines, and correctional theories from the lecture notes.

Selective Incorporation

The Supreme Court doctrine establishing that the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause applies most Bill of Rights protections (the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 8th Amendments) to the states, unifying all 52 court systems, with grand jury indictment remaining the primary exception.

Rosa Brooks

Imagine changing who bears the mistakes, police training should focus on reminding officers that people have the right to go home safe. Better for an officer who is paid to take risks to die over an innocent person.

Police sign up to take risks.

Split Second Decisions.

Stop-and-Frisk (Stop, Question, and Frisk / SQF)

A police practice of briefly stopping, questioning and patting down people’s outer clothing for weapons, based on reasonable suspicion, which is a lower standard than the probable cause needed for an arrest.

Problem-Oriented Policing

police should focus on the root causes of crime instead of just responding to incidents.

Pulling Levers Policing

combines enforcement with social services to deter gangs and repeat offenders.

Third Party Policing

using landlords, schools and private actors to help control crime.

3 variables that constitute and shape the police personality

The notion that they operate in dangerous situations

They have to exercise authority/be in command of a situation

They have to catch the bad guys

They have to show that they’re doing their job efficiently

Moral Panics

Moral panics are not normal reactions from the public, rather constructs fueled by the media.

Crack Cocaine Panic and Violent Crime Panic were portrayed by the media to be major epidemics when in reality they were not, used to divert attention from real issues.

Harris v New York

In the 1971 case Harris v. New York, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that statements obtained from a suspect in violation of Miranda rights can still be used by the prosecution to impeach the defendant's credibility if they choose to testify at trial. The case arose after Viven Harris was arrested for selling heroin and gave conflicting accounts to police without being fully informed of his rights. While the prosecution could not use these unwarned statements as direct evidence of guilt, the Court held that Miranda protects defendants from coercive interrogations but does not grant them a license to commit perjury on the witness stand.

Ferguson Effect

The theory that after the 2014 police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and the protests and national scrutiny that followed, police officers became less willing to proactively enforce the law. Officers held back from stops and getting involved in situations, especially when the rules or consequences were unclear, out of fear of being filmed, disciplined, sued or blamed for the next viral incident.

Predictive Policing

Using data and computer algorithms to forecast where crime is likely to happen or who is likely to be involved, then deploying police there before crime occurs. It grew out of hot spots policing and Compstat-style crime mapping, adding big data and software that analyze past crime patterns.

Hot Spots Policing

Concentrating police resources on the small, specific places (addresses, street blocks) where crime clusters, instead of spreading patrol evenly across a city.

Missouri V Seibert

In Missouri v. Seibert (2004), police intentionally questioned Patricia Seibert without giving her Miranda warnings, obtained an incriminating confession, and then gave her Miranda warnings before questioning her again and getting her to repeat the confession. The Supreme Court held that this “question-first, warn-later” technique violated Miranda when used deliberately because the later warning could not effectively inform Seibert of her right to remain silent after she had already confessed. The Court therefore ruled that the statements obtained after the ineffective warning strategy could not be used

Ban the Box

Initiative to remove conviction questions from job applications.

Taylor vs Riojas

What was the case about?

Texas inmate Trent Taylor was confined for six days in extremely unsanitary prison cells. One cell was covered in human feces, and in another he was forced to sleep naked in sewage after a drain overflowed with urine and waste.

Main Question:

Were prison officials protected by qualified immunity even though they kept an inmate in these extreme conditions?

Holding (Main Point):

No. The Supreme Court held that no reasonable correctional officer could believe it was constitutional to keep an inmate in such deplorable conditions. The officials were not entitled to qualified immunity.

Qualified Immunity

Protects officials unless they violate a clearly established constitutional right. (shield for cops)
Hard to hold legal officials accountable, often sides with the street level bureaucrat

SARA Model

The four-step process for problem-oriented policing, developed in Newport News, Virginia (Eck & Spelman, 1987):

Scanning: Identify a recurring problem.

Analysis: Study its causes.

Response: Develop tailored solutions that go beyond arrests.

Assessment: Evaluate whether the response worked.

Braga & Weisburd note that in practice officers often do shallow analysis, rely on traditional enforcement and skip assessment, but even this “shallow” problem solving can reduce crime.

Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment (1974)

A Police Foundation study led by George Kelling that tested routine car patrol, the “backbone” of policing. Fifteen beats were divided into three groups:

Reactive: No patrol; officers only answered calls.

Control: Normal patrol.

Proactive: Patrol increased two to three times.

It found that changing patrol levels had no effect on crime, citizens’ fear or satisfaction. The study shattered faith in the standard model of policing and helped trigger the wave of police innovation that followed, including community policing, hot spots and problem-oriented policing.

Vega vs Tekoh

Vega v. Tekoh means you cannot sue a police officer for money just because they forgot to read you your Miranda rights. The Supreme Court decided that the Miranda warning ("you have the right to remain silent...") is a courtroom rule to protect your rights, not a constitutional right on its own. While a court can still throw out an unwarned confession so it cannot be used against you in a criminal trial, you are not allowed to file a civil rights lawsuit against the officer for the mistake.

Mechanical Jurisprudence

View that judges, justices, etc. come to decision purely on the law and facts of the case. They discover the law, and if done right they will come to the right decision. Decisions based nly on facts and rules.

Skeptics, R x F = D

R × F = D (Jerome Frank, Legal Realism): Rules × Facts = Decision. The traditional view says decisions are predictable because judges simply apply the rules to the facts. Legal realists are skeptical:

Rule skeptics say “rules are not rules.” Rules are vague (what is “probable cause”?), judges disagree about which rule applies and how much weight to give precedent, and their interpretation and philosophy shape outcomes.

Fact skeptics (Frank) say “facts are not facts.” Facts are guesses by fallible judges and juries based on unreliable testimony, so even clear rules can produce wrong decisions.

Significance: Court decisions are less certain and objective than they seem. They depend on human interpretation and judgment.

Goodhart's Law

when a statistic becomes a target, it can cease to be a reliable measure of reality

Moskos and Flogging

Argument that flogging (physical retribution/vindication) is better than U.S. prison system, argues that punishment does not require imprisonment.

Standards of proof

In criminal cases, “beyond a reasonable doubt.” In civil cases, “more likely than not.”

Informal Social System in Prisons

Inmates develop codes, norms, rules to cope; creates a hierarchy within prisons, causing tension and violence

Inflection point

Dramatic increase in incarceration in 1980. Prior to 1980, inmates were moved between prisons and mental health institutions, whereas after there was no more movement between and prisoners remained in prisons.

Imprisoning Communities & Concentrated Incarceration

Mass incarceration creates a concentrated disadvantage in affected communities. Constant cycling of residents in and out of prison disrupts social networks, makes communities less stable, family disruption, economic harm, political marginalization, stigma, and weakened social control.

Reentry and Technical Violations

Reentry is the process of coordinating criminal justice and social policy domains to ensure ex-offenders can successfully return to society without reoffending. Technical violations are violations of supervision conditions (e.g. parole) that doesn’t involve a new crime (missing appointment, failed drug test, curfew violation), and are a major driver of re-incarceration.

Peremptory challenge

Removing a juror with no reason, limited in number. Batson and J.E.B. ban strikes based on race and gender, and a party can raise a Batson challenge. Because race still affects strikes and verdicts, many want peremptories abolished. Others say they protect against state and judicial power. The authors say reduce them but keep them.

Street-Level Bureaucrat

A public employee (such as a police officer, teacher, or lower-court judge) who interacts directly and constantly with citizens, possesses wide discretionary power, and represents the face of government in encounters that significantly impact people's lives.

Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) / Crime Index

The FBI's national crime data system compiled from local police reports focusing on seven 'Index crimes' (murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny of $50 or more, and auto theft), measuring crimes known to police rather than actual crime. Only reported crimes, ignored white color crimes

Dark Figure of Crime

The substantial volume of crime that is never reported to or recorded by the police (e.g., approximately one-third of robberies and two-thirds of burglaries), meaning official crime statistics reflect only a minimum threshold.

Habeas Corpus / Collateral Remedies

Separate, civil-style lawsuits initiated after direct appeals end, wherein a prisoner sues the custodian (warden) asserting constitutional violations during conviction; federal courts can overturn state decisions only if contrary to, or an unreasonable application of, clearly established federal law.

Ideological Displacement

Gary Chiricos's concept that moral panics obscure a one-sided class war characterized by disinvestment, de-skilling, and economic inequality by deflecting public anger toward the urban underclass instead of structural economic policies.

Carceral State

The expansive U.S. penal system of mass incarceration, severe punishments, capital punishment, and post-release surveillance that emerged mostly out of public view since the 1970s, impacting poor and minority communities most heavily while altering citizenship.

Neoliberalism (in Criminal Justice)

An ideological push for free markets, tax reductions, and minimal government that Marie Gottschalk identifies as the primary hidden barrier to dismantling mass incarceration by individualizing blame and substituting penal sanctions for social programs.

Diminishing Returns of Incarceration

The criminological principle that as prison capacities expand, they increasingly incapacitate less dangerous offenders, resulting in progressively smaller reductions in crime for each additional person imprisoned.

Rockefeller Drug Laws (1973)

Pioneering New York statutes enacting rigid mandatory-minimum sentences for drug infractions, widely replicated across the country and identified by Fortner as a pivotal precursor to mass incarceration prior to the federal War on Drugs.

Black Silent Majority

Working- and middle-class African Americans who, in response to community drug crises and violent crime during the 1960s and 1970s, advocated for aggressive policing and harsh sentencing, inadvertently contributing to the rise of the carceral state.

Responsive Justice

The concept that elected prosecutors and judges modify their legal decisions, charging behaviors, and sentencing severity to align with shifting public opinion.

Community Policing

An organizational policing model emphasizing collaboration with local residents, expanding the police function beyond reactive law enforcement, and permitting communities to participate in identifying public safety priorities.

WATCHMAN STYLE

The cop being out there on the beat and creating a relationship with the community?

SERVICE STYLE

Suburban town where the cops really care about doing things for the community, emphasis on service rather than enforcement

Legalistic Style

The cops exist purely to enforce the law

Exclusionary Rule

A constitutional rule prohibiting the prosecution from introducing evidence obtained through unlawful searches or seizures at trial, incorporated against states in Mapp v. Ohio.

Mapp v. Ohio

• Incident (1957): Cleveland, Ohio police officers forced entry into the home of Dollree Mapp without a valid search warrant, claiming they were looking for a bombing suspect and illegal gambling materials.

• Discovery: They did not find the suspect or gambling items, but they confiscated a trunk of allegedly obscene books and pictures.

• Conviction: Mapp was arrested, tried, and convicted under Ohio law for possessing obscene materials, a conviction that the Ohio Supreme Court upheld.

United States v. Leon (1984)

The Supreme Court ruling establishing the 'good-faith exception' to the exclusionary rule, allowing evidence gathered by officers acting in reasonable reliance on a search warrant issued by a neutral magistrate that is later deemed invalid.

Miranda v. Arizona (1966)

A landmark Supreme Court decision requiring law enforcement officers to inform suspects subjected to custodial interrogation of their Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights, including the right to remain silent and the right to counsel.

Moran v. Burbine

Supreme Court decision holding that an otherwise voluntary and informed Miranda waiver is not invalidated by police deception of an attorney seeking contact with the suspect or their failure to inform the suspect of the attorney's attempts to assist him.

United States v. Dickerson (2000)

The Supreme Court ruling that Miranda v. Arizona is a binding constitutional decision rooted in stare decisis that cannot be superseded by congressional statute, thereby invalidating 18 U.S.C. § 3501.

Stare Decisis

The foundational judicial doctrine requiring courts to adhere to settled legal precedent to ensure legal consistency and stability over time.

Supply-Side vs. Buy-Side Policing

Supply-side strategies attempt to reduce crime by targeting sellers, manufacturers, and supply chains via interdiction and arrests; buy-side (demand-side) approaches decrease consumption and illicit opportunities through prevention, education, and treatment.

Broken Windows Theory

The theory that tolerating visible, minor social and physical disorder conveys community indifference, precipitating fear, the erosion of informal social controls, and ultimately an influx of serious crime.

Police Working Personality

The distinct occupational outlook, perceptions, and behavioral tendencies adopted by police officers, cultivated by perpetual exposure to danger, authority requirements, and administrative pressures for efficiency.

Tennessee v. Garner (1985)

A Supreme Court ruling declaring deadly force against an unarmed, nondangerous fleeing felon an unconstitutional Fourth Amendment seizure; such force is restricted to instances where probable cause shows a threat of serious physical injury or death.

Elective vs. Nonelective Shootings

The classification of police shootings distinguishing instances where an officer exercises choice in using lethal force (subject to policy control) from immediate 'shoot or die' defensive necessities.

Black Data

Andrew Ferguson's concept denoting the hidden biases, structural distortions, and lack of transparency concealed within seemingly objective algorithmic and data-driven policing tools.

War on Drugs

war on drugs shapes everything about policing in poor neighborhoods. It turns patrol into endless, pointless drug arrests and makes police and residents enemies. It also sends huge numbers of Black men into the justice system without reducing drugs or violence. His solution is to end drug prohibition and change police culture from arrests to crime prevention and discretion.

Warrior vs. Guardian Philosophy

Contrasting policing frameworks: the warrior model views policing as a militarized conflict demanding force and domination, whereas the guardian model frames officers as community protectors who cultivate procedural justice and public trust.

Compstat

a data-driven police management system that uses up-to-date crime data, crime mapping, and regular accountability meetings to identify crime patterns and allocate police resources

Political Trial

A legal proceeding in which judicial mechanisms and prosecutions are utilized primarily to achieve political aims, consolidate authority, or weaken rivals rather than merely determine factual guilt.

Selective Prosecution

The exercise of prosecutorial discretion to single out specific groups or persons for charges; it violates constitutional equal protection guarantees when motivated by race or other impermissible classifications.

Modern Legal Magic

Jerome Frank's term criticizing the assumption that precise legal rules generate certain and predictable trial rulings, obscuring the subjective guesswork inherent in fact-finding by juries and judges.

Fight Theory vs. Truth Theory

The tension between the adversarial model (Fight Theory), where opposing advocates introduce only favorable facts to win, and an investigative ideal (Truth Theory), where the tribunal dispassionately uncovers objective truth.

Upper Court Myth

Jerome Frank's critique of the mistaken assumption that appellate courts form the core of the legal system and effectively correct errors, disregarding that non-reviewable trial-court factual determinations decide most outcomes.

Dilemma of race-blind policing

Concentrating police in high-crime minority areas produces racial disparities even without individual racism.

Ramos v. Louisiana (2020)

Supreme Court decision ruling that the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial requires a unanimous verdict to convict in serious state criminal cases, overruling Apodaca v. Oregon via the Fourteenth Amendment.

Voir Dire

The preliminary questioning of prospective jurors by judges and attorneys to identify bias and determine impartiality, during which jurors are removed via challenges for cause or peremptory strikes.

Batson v. Kentucky (1986)

The Supreme Court decision establishing that using peremptory challenges to exclude potential jurors based on race violates the Equal Protection Clause, creating a three-step burden-shifting evidentiary test.

J.E.B. v. Alabama (1994)

The Supreme Court ruling extending Batson to gender, holding that the Equal Protection Clause prohibits striking prospective jurors purely on the basis of their sex.

Jury Nullification

The decision by a jury to acquit a criminal defendant despite overwhelming factual proof of legal guilt, usually due to perceived statutory unfairness, harsh penalties, or institutional bias.

Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)

The Supreme Court ruling incorporating the Sixth Amendment right to appointed counsel for indigent defendants facing felony prosecutions in state courts.

North Carolina v. Alford (1970)

The Supreme Court ruling allowing a defendant to enter a valid guilty plea while maintaining factual innocence in order to secure a more favorable sentencing outcome.

Implicit vs. Explicit Plea Bargaining

Implicit bargaining involves a defendant pleading guilty under the shared expectation of sentencing leniency without overt negotiation; explicit bargaining involves direct negotiations over specific charges, sentences, or facts.

Types of Bargaining:

• Charge → reduce felony to misdemeanor; drop charges

• Sentence → negotiate length of sentence

• Fact → agree on facts to present to judge

Nolle Prosequi

A formal entry by a prosecutor declaring the voluntary dismissal of charges while preserving the discretionary right to reinstate prosecution within a specified period (typically one year).

Nolo Contendere

A criminal plea of 'no contest' wherein the defendant does not admit liability or guilt but submits to sentencing and punishment as though convicted.

Motivations of the BIG THREE:

• Prosecutors → MAXIMIZE CONVICTIONS; case pressure & caseload management; maximize total incarceration time; higher conviction rates = career advancement

• Defense Attorneys → MEDIATE RELATIONS, PROVE LEGAL INNOCENCE; client often factually guilty, though may not be legally guilty; reward for plea (lighter sentence) vs. trial penalty (harsher sentence); case pressure; maintain good relations with courtroom workgroup

• Judges → SPEED & EFFICIENCY; Efficiency in doling out justice; reduce pre-trial detention time; minimize workload and reduce appellate reversal risk

Courtroom Workgroup

The cooperative network of regular participants—prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges—who collaborate on routine casework and share informal norms prioritizing speed, efficiency, and negotiated dispositions.

Catch-22

OCA procedure where demanding discovery stops speedy trial, forcing defendants to choose between evidence and release.

Judicial Resistance

Judges used narrow statutory interpretation, administrative maneuvers, and public safety to undermine reforms.

Willful Blindness

A legal doctrine establishing criminal knowledge when an actor consciously avoids learning incriminating facts, which in practice often serves to insulate high-ranking corporate executives from individual criminal prosecution.

Procedural Justice Theory

The theory that citizens' perceptions of institutional legitimacy and satisfaction with legal outcomes stem primarily from being treated fairly via four pillars: voice, neutrality, dignity/respect, and trustworthy motives.

Packer's Crime Control vs. Due Process Models

Herbert Packer's competing paradigms: Crime Control prioritizes rapid, efficient case processing, high conviction rates, and informal screening, while Due Process prioritizes adversarial scrutiny, individual rights, and the prevention of wrongful convictions.