Chapter 3: Criminal Justice and the Rule of Law

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering the concepts, principles, defenses, offenses, and court rulings from Chapter 3: Criminal Justice and the Rule of Law.

Substantive Criminal Law

Law that defines actions that the government can punish.

Procedural Criminal Law

Law that defines the rules that govern how the laws will be enforced.

Civil Law

Law governing business deals, contracts, real estate, and civil harm.

Felonies

Serious crimes punishable by prison for more than one year or the death penalty.

Misdemeanors

Less serious crimes punishable by less than a year in jail or probation.

Civil Infractions

Minor offenses punishable by small fines.

Attendant Circumstances

The acts of crime that are fulfilled.

Inchoate Offense

An incomplete criminal act, such as an attempt or conspiracy to commit a crime.

Legality

The principle of criminal law requiring a law that defines the specific action as a crime.

Actus Reus

Human conduct required as an element of a crime.

Mens Rea

A guilty state of mind required for criminal liability.

Causation

The causal relationship between the criminal act and the harm.

Concurrence

The requirement that intent and act are present at the same time.

Self-Defense

A justification defense used by a person who feels in immediate danger of serious physical injury to defend themselves or others, where force used cannot exceed the reasonable perception of threat.

Necessity

A justification defense applied when breaking the law to save oneself or prevent greater harm, provided the necessity is reasonable.

Duress

An excuse defense used when a person commits a crime because they were forced to.

Entrapment

An excuse defense applied when an individual is induced by police to commit a crime.

Infancy

An excuse defense that excuses crimes committed by children under age seven.

Mistake of Fact

An excuse defense used when the accused made a mistake in a crucial fact.

Insanity

An excuse defense where mental illness prevented the accused from forming intent.

M'Naghten Rule

An insanity test based on a defect of reason or disease of the mind, testing right from wrong.

Irresistible Impulse Test

An insanity test applied when mental illness controlled the individual even though they knew what they were doing was wrong.

Durham Rule

An insanity test determining whether an act was caused by a mental disease or mental defect.

Substantial Capacity Test

Model Penal Code test where the accused is not able to appreciate the criminality of the act due to mental illness or disease.

Comprehensive Crime Control Act (1984)

Federal insanity standard stating the accused was unable to understand wrongdoing due to mental illness, placing the burden of proof on defense counsel.

Criminal Homicide

Murder and manslaughter (the willful killing of one human being by another) or manslaughter by negligence (killing by gross negligence), excluding traffic fatalities, attempts, suicides, accidents, and justifiable homicides.

Forcible Rape

Penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without consent of the victim.

Robbery

Taking or attempting to take anything of value from control of a person or persons by force or threat of force.

Aggravated Assault

Unlawful attack by one person upon another person for the purpose of inflicting severe bodily injury.

Burglary

Unlawful entry, or attempted forcible entry, of a structure to commit a felony or a theft.

Larceny/Theft

Unlawful taking, carrying, leading, or riding away of property from the possession of another (except motor vehicle).

Arson

Willful or malicious burning or attempt to burn, with or without intent to defraud, a dwelling house, public house, motor vehicle, aircraft, or personal property.

Barron v. Baltimore (1833)

Supreme Court case deciding that Bill of Rights protections only applied to actions by the federal government.

Fourteenth Amendment

Constitutional amendment added in 1868 establishing that persons born in the United States are citizens and protected from deprivation of life, liberty, or property without due process of law and equal protection.

Powell v. Alabama (1932)

Supreme Court case establishing under the due process clause that states will provide lawyers for defendants, regardless of their ability to pay.

Fundamental Fairness

Legal concept that states must meet basic standards of fairness in criminal justice procedures.

Incorporation

The process by which the U.S. Supreme Court applied Bill of Rights protections (Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Amendments) to the states via the Fourteenth Amendment due process clause.

Grand Jury

A group of citizens that determines if there is sufficient evidence to move forward with a criminal prosecution.

Double Jeopardy

Fifth Amendment protection applying to one jurisdiction, allowing trial in both state and federal court for the same offense.

Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)

Supreme Court case requiring states to provide free attorneys to low-income defendants.