Criminal Law and Punishment Lecture Notes

Vocabulary flashcards covering the principles of criminalization, constitutional limitations on government power, rationales for punishment, and key legal cases.

Abuse-of-discretion standard

A deferential standard used by a state appellate court to review a trial court’s sentencing decision in a criminal case.

Substituted-discretion standard

An alternative standard to abuse-of-discretion used by appellate courts to review sentencing decisions.

Victimization impacts

The consequences of a crime categorized into physical, emotional/mental, social, and financial impacts.

Secondary victimization

Additional emotional harm endured by crime victims during interactions with the criminal justice system (police, prosecutors, judges, or the trial process).

Three sources of criminal law

The Constitution, statutory/regulatory law, and common law.

Article 3, Sec. 3

The section of the United States Constitution that defines the crime of treason.

Legality principle

The principle 'No crime without law, no punishment without law' which prohibits retroactive criminal liability.

Rule of specificity

The requirement that criminal laws be sufficiently understandable and specific to guide the public and law enforcement on prohibited conduct.

Rule of Lenity

The principle that an unresolvedly ambiguous criminal statute should be interpreted in favor of the defendant.

Bill of Attainder

A legislative act prohibited by Article 1, Section 9 that targets a specific group for punishment without trial, such as in United States v. Brown.

Ex post facto laws

Laws prohibited by Article 1, Section 10 that apply retroactively by criminalizing prior legal acts, increasing punishment severity, or changing evidence rules to favor conviction.

Due Process (14th Amendment)

Prohibits states from depriving any person of life, liberty, or property by means that are arbitrary or fundamentally unfair.

Lawrence v. Texas

A case establishing that the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause includes a right to liberty regarding the intimacies of physical relationships.

Equal Protection Clause

A provision of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibiting state and local governments from treating individuals or classes differently under similar circumstances without justification.

Loving v. Virginia

A case ruling that states cannot prevent marriages between persons solely based on racial classification under the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses.

Robinson v. California

A case ruling that imprinting a criminal sanction solely for addiction to narcotics violates the Eighth Amendment.

Retributivism

A backward-looking philosophical school of punishment focused on the defendant's desert rather than future benefit or vengeance.

Rehabilitation

A forward-looking utilitarian rationale that views criminal behavior as a correctable character defect that can be rectified through punishment.

Incapacitation

A forward-looking rationale aiming to reduce crime by removing the defendant from society, usually through prison custody.

Specific deterrence

A forward-looking rationale intended to teach a specific defendant a lesson to prevent them from reoffending.

General deterrence

A forward-looking rationale intended to teach society a lesson to prevent future crimes by others.

Trop v. Dulles

A case ruling that revocation of citizenship as punishment violates the Eighth Amendment and establishes the 'evolving standards of decency' analysis.

Evolving standards of decency analysis

A three-step analysis considering (1) historical practice, (2) current societal consensus, and (3) the court’s independent judgment.

Ingraham v. Wright

A case ruling that corporal punishment of public schoolchildren does not violate the Eighth Amendment and does not require a prior hearing.

Pragmatic constraints on punishment

Economic limitations that have recently led to changes in thinking regarding the constant push for more and longer punishments.