Power, Perception, & Punishment Study Guide: Final Exam Flashcards

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering legal terms, landmark Supreme Court cases, corrections concepts, and juvenile justice definitions based on the Power, Perception, & Punishment final exam study guide.

Implicit bias

An unconscious attitude toward or stereotype of an individual or group of individuals, which can be either positive or negative.

Racial discrimination

The act of withholding or preventing someone from receiving social benefits, facilities, services, or opportunities based on race, color, or national origin.

Dual-court system

Refers to the judicial branch of the American government consisting of both state and federal courts.

Bail

Money, property, or other security offered in exchange for the release from custody of an arrested person and to guarantee the person’s appearance at trial.

Plea bargaining

The process and result of an agreement between a prosecuting attorney and defense counsel to reduce the seriousness or number of charges in a criminal case in return for a guilty plea.

Peremptory challenges

The right during voir dire to challenge the seating of jurors without citing a specific cause.

Public defender system

A federal, state, or local criminal justice agency providing salaried government attorneys to represent criminal defendants who are too poor to hire a private attorney; it began in Los Angeles County in $1914$.

Eighth Amendment

A part of the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights that prohibits the federal government from imposing excessive bail, excessive fines, or cruel and unusual punishments.

Pretrial release

The practice of conditionally releasing criminal defendants prior to trial without formal posting of bail, typically requiring stable residence, employment, and community ties.

Voir dire

The process of selecting jurors prior to the commencement of a criminal trial where prospective jurors are questioned by both the prosecutor and defense attorney.

Batson v. Kentucky (1986)

A landmark case where the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that peremptory challenges could not be used for a racially discriminatory purpose, such as deliberately eliminating prospective Black candidates to create an all-White jury.

Jury nullification

The disregard by a jury of the evidence presented and the rendering of its verdict based on other criteria.

Rehabilitation

A rationale for punishment emphasizing correcting offender behavior through treatment, guidance, and aftercare, such as community service or probation.

War on Drugs

The attempt by federal and state authorities to control the supply and distribution of illegal drugs, often criticized for its emphasis on supply reduction similar to Prohibition.

Sentencing disparities

Differences in sentences involving similarly situated offenders, often resulting from legislative differences or judicial/prosecutorial discretion.

United States Sentencing Commission

An independent agency of the judicial branch that establishes federal sentencing policy, advises Congress on crime policies, and researches sentencing issues.

Bloody code

The English legal system from the late $17^{th}$ to early $19^{th}$ century, known for a huge number of crimes punishable by death to protect the interests and property of wealthy lawmakers.

Furman v. Georgia (1972)

A landmark case where the Supreme Court set aside the death penalty because it was administered in a racially discriminatory way, constituting cruel and unusual punishment and leading to a moratorium on capital punishment until $1976$.

Gregg v. Georgia (1976)

The case ending the moratorium on capital punishment, rejecting the argument that the death penalty violated the Eighth Amendment and requiring two-stage trials.

Guided discretion

A two-stage death penalty trial process where a jury may impose a death sentence only if the prosecution proves a statutorily specified aggravating circumstance.

Coker v. Georgia (1977)

A landmark case in which the Supreme Court ruled that death sentences are inappropriate punishments for rapes in which the life of the victim is not taken.

McCleskey v. Kemp (1987)

A case where the Supreme Court rejected an appeal despite statistical evidence of racial disproportion, claiming Georgia's death penalty was not arbitrary, capricious, or discriminatory.

Marshall hypotheses

Justice Thurgood Marshall's conjectures that Americans know almost nothing about the death penalty and would find it shocking and unacceptable if fully informed of its purposes and liabilities.

Innocence Project

An organization founded in $1992$ by Peter J. Neufeld and Barry C. Scheck that uses DNA testing to establish the innocence of wrongfully convicted offenders.

Corrections

The criminal justice component concerned with the imprisonment, control, and rehabilitation of convicted offenders, including prisons, parole, and probation.

Mass incarceration

Punitive sentencing practices from the $1980$s to $2000$s resulting in hyper-incarceration, particularly of Black and Hispanic offenders.

Control rates

A metric describing the number of persons from a specific population under the jurisdiction of the criminal justice system.

Prison-industrial complex

The industries that depend on the existence of prisons, including construction and food service companies.

Collateral consequences

Unintended consequences involving the loss of rights or opportunities, such as voting rights, that certain offenders face in addition to their criminal sentence.

Recidivism

Reoffending after an offender has been released, including rearrest or technical violations of probation or supervision.

Prisoner reentry

The return of offenders to their community and the programs, such as vocational training and drug rehabilitation, intended to promote effective reintegration.

Disproportionate minority contact (DMC)

The overrepresentation of minority youth in the various stages of the juvenile justice system.

School-to-prison pipeline

The relationship between school punishment and an increased likelihood that students will eventually enter the juvenile or criminal justice systems.

Juvenile court

A court of law with jurisdiction over the delinquency and unruliness of persons who have not yet attained adulthood.

Intake

The specific point at which a youth formally becomes involved in the juvenile justice process.

Disposition

The conclusion of juvenile court proceedings, similar to the imposition of a sentence in a criminal case.

Child savers

Civic actors in the $19^{th}$ and $20^{th}$ centuries who led social movements to establish autonomous juvenile justice systems and child welfare reforms.

Houses of refuge

Facilities opened in the $1800$s intended to protect potentially criminal youth, though some critics argue they were discriminatory against poor White immigrants and excluded Black youth.

Black child savers

Black civic actors who reconfigured juvenile social control by pushing Black youth into welfare networks and uplifting the democracy of American juvenile justice.

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)

A branch of the Department of Justice authorized in $1974$ to improve juvenile justice administration and provide grants to state and local governments.

Racial undercaste

A group defined largely by race that is permanently locked out of mainstream white society by law, custom, and practice.

Political disenfranchisement

The use of race-neutral devices to exclude Black citizens from the electorate, such as felon disenfranchisement laws where $\frac{1}{7}$ Black men nationwide have lost the right to vote.

Super-predators

A term describing a perceived generation of street criminals characterized as radically impulsive, brutally remorseless, and inclusive of preteen boys committing serious crimes.

Legal socialization

The process by which individuals come to understand and appreciate the law, the institutions that create laws, and the people who enforce them.

Racist policy

Any measure that produces or sustains racial inequity between racial groups.

Antiracist policy

Any measure that produces or sustains racial equity between racial groups.

Colorblindness

Viewing people as raceless, which obscures the reality of discrimination and masks the existence of a new racial undercaste.