Criminal Justice ch 4

What is Age of Enlightenment?

• Brought about new ways of thinking including reforms asirising from outrage against the barbaric system of law and punishment just before the French Revolution in the late 18th century

What is the difference between general and specific deterrence?

General Deterrence- The notion that the general populace will be deterred from committing crimes based on the perceived negative consequences of being caught 

Specific Deterrence- The notion that punishment serves to deter the individual being punished from committing crime in the future

What term refers to the fundamental principle in the criminal justice system in the United States that all government officers pledge to uphold the Constitution, not any particular human leader?

Rule of Law

What is common law?

a type of legal system formally developed in England, whereby the courts define the law and determine how to apply the law. This is the body of law derived from judicial opinions

What is constitutional law?

a major source of law that establishes the fundamental rules and relationships among the judiciary, legislative, and executive branches at the state and federal levels 

What is the Bill of Rights?

the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, which guide procedural law pertaining to issues such as arrests, warrants, search/seizure, and trials

What is the preemption doctrine?

• the idea put forth in the Constitution that federal law is the “Supreme Law of the Land”

  • In other words, usually federal law overrides conflicting state laws

What are statutes?

formal rules, or law, adopted by a governing body such as a state legislature

What are ordinances?

municipal or city rules

What is case law?

law that is based on previous court decisions or precedents

What is a class action lawsuit?

Civil cases involving large numbers of victims in which courts authorize a single individual or small faction to represent the interests of the larger group

What is administrative law?

Derives from a legislative body’s delegation of authority over commissions or boards to regulate activities controlled by written statutes

What is the guilty act?

Actus reus. used to indicate the physical act of the crime. Usually paired with mens rea to show criminal liability

What is the guilty mind?

Mens rea. used in court to prove criminal intent

What is concurrence?

• The guilty act and mind occurred simultaneously 

• The guilty mind motivated the guilty act

What is the difference between an excuse and a justification?

Excuse- provides mitigating factors that explain why a person engaged in criminal behavior and relates to the status or capacity of the accused

Justification- the quality of the act

What are the different tests for criminal insanity?

• M’Naghten standard (right-wrong test)

• Irresistible Impulse Test

• Durham Test

• Brawner Rule (ALI rule)

What does BWS stand for? What is it?

Battered Woman Syndrome. A criminal defense developed to excuse or mitigate the actions of a women who kill their abusers in cases of domestic violence despite a lack of imminent danger

What did the Supreme Court hold in United States v. Jones (2012) and Kyllo v. United States (2001)?

United States V. Jones- The Supreme Court held that installing a GPS tracking device on a vehicle and using the device to monitor the vehicle’s movements constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment  

United States V. Kyllo- The Supreme Court held that using a thermal imaging device to monitor heat radiation in or around a person’s home, even if conducted from a public vantage point, is unconstitutional without a search warrant

What is Ex Post Facto Law?

A law that the legislature passed after a crime was committed. At the time the person committed the action, it was legal, and only later was the act deemed criminal 

What is law?

hard to define. a set of rules that allowed one to predict how a court would resolve a particular dispute

What is precedent?

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

Essentially, how many different criminal codes are there in the nation?

52. one for each state

What is a regulation?

a governmental order or rule having the force of law that is usually implemented by an administrative agency

What did the Supreme hold in Lawrence v. Texas (2003)?

the government cannot treat one class of citizens differently from the rest of society when it comes to sexual practices between consenting adults

What are the two categories that include the variety of harms that can be described as criminal harms?

1. harms to individual citizens’ physical safety and property, such as the harm caused by murder, theft, or arson

2. harms to society’s interests collectively, such as the harm caused by unsafe foods or consumer products, a polluted environment, or poorly constructed buildings

What are the two functions of law that justify the criminalization of “morally” wrongful activities that do no obvious, physical harm outside the families of those involved?

What is corpus delecti?

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

What is a “duty to aid” statute?

requires citizens to report criminal conduct and help victims of such conduct if possible

What is negligence?

a failure to exercise the standard of care that a reasonable person would exercise in similar circumstances

What is recklessness?

the state of being aware that a risk does or will exist and nevertheless acting in a way that consciously disregards this risk

What are the two circumstances under which first-degree murder can occur? How does second-degree murder differ?

What is voluntary manslaughter?

a homicide in which the intent to kill was present in the mind of the offender, but malice was lacking

What is involuntary manslaughter?

a homicide in which the offender had no intent to kill the victim

What is a felony-murder?

an unlawful homicide that occurs during the attempted commission of a felony

What are attendant circumstances?

the facts surrounding a criminal event that must be proved to convict the defendant of the underlying crime

What is an alibi?

proof that a suspect was somewhere other than the scene of the crime at the time of the crime, typically offered to demonstrate that the suspect was not guilty of the crime

What is the infancy defense?

the status of a person who is below the legal age of majority. under early American law, infancy excused young wrongdoers of criminal behavior because presumably they could not understand the consequences of their actions

Which insanity defense test is used in Wisconsin?

ALI/MPC

What is a guilty but mentally ill statute?

What is involuntary intoxication?

occurs when a person is physically forced to ingest or is injected with an intoxicating substance, or is unaware that a substance contains drugs or alcohol

About how often is the insanity defense raised? How effective is it?

raised about 1% in felony cases (one in four)

What is the duress defense?

unlawful pressure brought

What is the necessity defense?

a defense against criminal liability in which the defendant asserts that circumstances required the commission of an illegal act

What is entrapment?

a defense in which defendants claim that they were induced by a public official- usually an undercover agent or police officer- to commit a crime that they would otherwise not have committed

What is the difference between substantive and procedural criminal law?

Substantive- law that defines crimes and punishments

Procedural- law that governs procedures for investigating and prosecuting crimes

What is the difference between procedural and substantive due process?

Procedural due process- a provision in the Constitution that states that the law must be carried out in a fair and orderly manner

Substantive due process- the constitutional requirement that laws must be fair and reasonable in content and must further a legitimate governmental objective

What did the Supreme Court hold in Kahler v. Kansas (2020)?

Due process does not require Kansas to adopt an insanity test that turns on a defendant's ability to recognize that his crime was morally wrong