Criminology: Courts, Punishment, Community Corrections, and Community Drivers Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering courts, criminal procedures, sentencing principles, history of punishment, community corrections, rehabilitation models, and social drivers of crime based on lecture notes.

Due process

The application of legal rules to ensure all rights are respected by the state.

Common law

A body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes, deeply rooted in stare decisis.

Stare decisis

A legal principle meaning 'to stand by things decided', where courts follow precedents established by previous judicial decisions.

Habeas corpus

A legal principle meaning 'have the body', which represents freedom from arbitrary detention by the state.

Inferior courts (Magistrates court)

The lowest court tier presided over by a magistrate, special justice, or justice of the peace, dealing with minor criminal/civil matters and conducting committal proceedings for indictable offences.

Victorian Magistrates Court Sentencing Limits (Sentencing Act 1991)

Limits penalties to two years imprisonment for a single offence, five years imprisonment for multiple offences, and fines up to 500 penalty units for individuals or 2500 penalty units for corporations.

Intermediate courts

The middle tier of courts (such as County Courts or District Courts) presided over by experienced judges, dealing with serious criminal and civil matters including indictable offenses like assault, robbery, and rape.

Superior courts

The highest state and territory court tier (Supreme Courts), dealing with serious criminal and civil cases including homicide, and conducting jury trials with extreme penalties.

Federal Circuit Court of Australia

An inferior federal court providing less formal, cheaper, simpler, and faster resolution of less complex non-criminal matters like family law, migration, and trade practices to aid Supreme Court caseloads.

High Court of Australia

The final arbiter between Australian states and of the Constitution, hearing disputes between state and commonwealth governments, residents of different states, and actions against commonwealth officers.

Doctrine of precedent

The rule that judges are bound by earlier rulings made by a court at a higher level in the same jurisdictional hierarchy.

Rule of law

The notion that, irrespective of position, wealth, or influence, all individuals are treated alike in the eyes of the law.

Negotiated pleas

An agreement where the defendant is offered the opportunity to plead guilty usually in exchange for a sentence discount or recommendation of a lighter maximum sentence, subject to court approval.

Proportionality (Sentencing principle)

The principle that the severity of a court sentence should match the degree of harm caused by the offence.

Parsimony (Sentencing principle)

The principle requiring courts to consider offender welfare and prefer the minimum or least restrictive/coercive penalty option over the maximum penalty.

Consistency / Parity (Sentencing principle)

The principle ensuring that like criminal cases receive like sentences through similar judicial approaches and outcomes.

Individualized justice (Sentencing principle)

The requirement that courts weigh the full suite of specific circumstances in a case, which can exist at odds with proportionality and consistency.

Totality (Sentencing principle)

The principle of weighing total punishments across multiple offenses to ensure the aggregate penalty is not a crushing sentence.

Consecutive sentence

A sentence structure where each penalty for multiple offenses is served sequentially in order.

Concurrent sentence

A sentence structure where multiple imposed penalties are served at the exact same time.

Retribution

Punishment inflicted in the spirit of moral outrage or personal vengeance to reconcile past harms.

Ecclesiastical justice

The administration of law and punishment based on theological principles and religious teachings, treating crime as a sin against God and Christian society.

Secular justice

Justice systems emphasizing separation of church and state, rational scientific discourse, natural laws, and individual rights.

Gallery slavery

A sentence forcing convicts to work as rowers on ships, used regularly in Europe under Elizabeth I as an alternative to the death sentence.

Transportation

A historical penal sentence exiling convicts to remote penal colonies as an alternative to hanging.

Specific deterrence

Retrospective punishment imposed to discourage a known, individual offender from reoffending once sentenced.

General deterrence

A prospective attempt to reduce law-breaking across the wider community through the deterrent threat of severe punishment.

Incapacitation

The strategy of physically confining an offender in prison to protect society from potential future harm.

Positivist School

A criminology perspective arguing that human actions are driven by external biological, psychological, or social factors rather than free will, requiring individualized treatment.

Mortification (Total institution effect)

The loss of outside roles and identities experienced by an inmate, leaving them powerless and dependent in the institutional inmate role.

Importation (Total institution effect)

The process where inmates bring aspects of their outside culture into the prison setting.

Prisonization

The process by which an inmate adopts the subculture of a prison institution that aligns with their imported culture.

Recidivism

The act of being rearrested, reconvicted, or reincarcerated after release, which sits at approximately 62% in most jurisdictions.

Decarceration

An advocacy approach favoring the removal of individuals from penal institutions or asylums.

Deinstitutionalization

A social policy shift restructuring human service delivery by diverting individuals away from institutions towards community alternatives.

Diversion programs

Pre-sentencing programs that address underlying offending causes while adjourning sentencing to allow rehabilitation and supervision.

Suspended sentences

A non-custodial option where a prison term is put on hold provided the offender complies with good behavior and bond conditions.

Probation

A non-custodial option keeping a client in the community under community corrections supervision under specific conditions.

Parole

A post-custodial conditional release into the community under supervision following a term of imprisonment.

Non-parole period

The mandatory minimum term an individual must spend in prison before becoming eligible for parole consideration.

Intermediate sanctions

Community-based punishments (such as fines, home detention, or drug testing) applied for minor breaches of probation or parole.

Desistance

The social process through which an individual de-escalates and eventually stops participating in criminal or antisocial behavior.

Ontogenic desistance theories

Theories asserting that people naturally age out of criminal activity as part of the developmental maturation process.

Sociogenic desistance theories

Theories explaining desistance through changing social bonds, employment, parenthood, or pro-social peer connections.

Static factors

Unchangeable risk factors in an offender's background, such as criminal history or childhood abuse.

Dynamic factors

Modifiable risk factors in an offender's life, such as current employment status, peer group, housing, or attitudes.

Good Lives Model (GLM)

A strengths-based rehabilitation framework aimed at promoting primary human goods while reducing offender risk.

Collective efficacy

A community-level dynamic combining mutual trust and willingness to intervene for the common good to enforce social norms.

Social capital

Groups of community members organizing to take collective action in their shared interest.

Cumulative disadvantage

The process by which early economic and educational deficits create widening disparities and limited opportunities over time.

Poverty (Sen, 1999 definition)

A financial circumstance preventing an acceptable level of existence and reducing an individual's agency to pursue societal opportunities.