Criminal Justice Test 1

Mapp v. Ohio

• Exclusionary rule: prevents the government from using evidence obtained through a violation of a defendant's constitutional rights, such as those protected by the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments

• Ex: unlawful searches and seizures 

Recklessness

• Aware of risk yet still committing the act

• consciously disregard a substantial and unjustifiable risk

Substantive due process

• Constitutional requirement: Laws used in accusing + convicting persons must be fair

Procedural due process

• Provision in Constitution: Law must be carried out in fair and orderly manner

Competency Hearing

• Insanity is distinct from competence to stand trial 

Entrapment

• The government’s inducement
  of an otherwise innocent an
  individual to commit a crime

• The government’s action pushed an individual into committing a crime

M’Naghten rule

• Right and Wrong Test:

A person is legally insane if, at
the time of the commission of
the act, they didn’t
know the nature + quality of
the act or didn't know that
the act was wrong

• The burden of proof is on the defendant

5th Amendment 

• Requires that no one can be deprived of life, liberty, or property without “due process of the law”

4th Amendment

• Protects from unreasonable searches and seizures 

Doctrine of Legal Guilt

• Establishes that a person isn’t considered guilty of a crime unless the government proves their culpability beyond a reasonable doubt through the legal process.

Crime Control Model

• places primary emphasis on the right of society to be protected from crime and violent behaviors

• emphasizes efficient arrest and conviction of criminal offenders

Due Process Model

• goal of Criminal Justice is at least as much to protect the innocent as it is to convict the guilty

• emphasizes individual rights to be protect from the government and throughout the whole justice system processing

Organized Crimes

• illegal activities by an illegal organization 

• Ex: drugs, prostitution, extortion, etc

White Collar Crimes

• illegal acts committed by an individual or business entity using come non-violent method for personal or business advantage

• Ex: embezzlement

Violent Crimes

• murder

• sexual assault/rape

• assault/battery

• robbery

Cyber Crimes

• crimes directly related to the increased use of computers and technology

Hate Crime Laws

• Nearly every state has passed it

• Provide for greater sanctions against those who commit crimes motivated by bias against a person or group

Bill of Rights

• Adopted by states in 1791

• Served as basis for procedural safeguards of the accused 

Mens Rea

• Criminal Intent or a guilty state of mind

Actus Reas

Criminal Conduct

Felony

• criminal offense punishable by death or incarceration in a prison facility for a year or longer 

• Ex: muder

Misdemeanor

• Less serious crimes are generally punishable by fine or incarceration in jail for not more than a year

• Ex: shoplifting

NIBRS

• National Incident-Based Reporting System

• Law enforcement authorities provide offense and arrest data on 22 broad categories of crime, covering 46 offenses

• Provides more detail than UCR

• Was made in an attempt to improve data collecting collection

Individual Rights V. Public Order

• balancing the concern for individual rights with the need for public order through the administration of criminal justice 

How are UCR crime data reported by the FBI?

• through a voluntary national program administered by the FBI that gathers a collection of crime stats and other law enforcement information

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt pertains to standard of proof in which type of trial?

Criminal

Preponderance of the Evidence pertains to standard of proof in which type of trial?

Civil

What is meant by the term Mala in se?

• acts considered inherently wrong regardless of the law 

• Ex: murder, rape, theft

What is meant by the term statutory law?

• the body of law enacted by the legislative bodies 

• Federal Statutes, Municipalities, State Statutes 

Who is the final interpreter of the U.S. Constitution?

• The Court 

What is meant by the term Common law?

• Judges solidified a national law where legal principles applied to all citizens equally

• once a circuit judge made a ruling, other judges with similar cases followed that ruling

• Basis of statutory law for the U.S.

What is meant by the term Circuit?

• Henry II sent judges on a specific route throughout the country

Precedent

• a court decision that furnishes an example or authority for deciding subsequent cases involving similar facts

Prison and Jail populations are they going up or down?

Increasing

Crime trends in the U.S. regarding female rates.

• Rate of presence has been increasing

• significant percentage of them may be involved in narrow band of wrong-doing such as drug, alcohol, or property crimes 

Crime Clock

• most aggregate representation of UCR data 

• Conveys the annual reported crime experience by showing relative frequency of occurrence of index offenses 

What is the association between age and crime?

• Higher rate for younger people

• strongest statistical determinant of criminal behavior 

• people “age” out of committing offenses  

Law (definition)

• system of rules that a particular country or community recognizes as regulating the actions of its members and may enforce by the imposition of penalties

Understand the construct: Wedding Cake model

• Layer I: Celebrated Cases

• Layer 2: Serious felonies

• Layer 3: Lesser felonies

• Layer 4: Misdemeanors

What is meant by: Strict Liability Crimes?

• crime that doesn’t require mens rea

• individual may be convicted based solely on the commission of the criminal act

• Ex: statutory rape, or speeding

Are all crimes reported to the police?

• no

Categories of Mens Rea

• Purposeful: act committed when desired to

• Knowing: aware of the illegality 

• Reckless: Aware of risk, nevertheless acting

• Negligent: deviates from standard of care used by a reasonable person

definition of murder

• unlawful killing of a human being by another human being

Reason(s) for gang violence:

• drugs

• territory

What is the definition of “negligence?”

• gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would use under some circumstances

What is meant by Corpus delict?

• “the body of the crime” be proved before a person can be convicted of wrongdoing

• delicti: proof that a specific crim e has actually been committed by someone

• Delicti: the body of circumstances that must exist for a criminal act to have occured

What is the supreme law of the land? (document)

U.S. Constitution

Crime is an act considered against whom? (People, property, or state)

the state or society

Understand the case of In Re Gault

• ruled the 14th Amendment's due process clause applies to juvenile proceedings, granting juveniles rights such as notice of charges, the right to counsel, the right to confrontation and cross-examination, and protection against self-incrimination