Criminal Justice in America (10th Ed) - Chapters 4, 5, 6 Key Terms

Frankpledge

A system in old English law in which members of a tithing (a group of 10 families) pledged to be responsible for keeping order and bringing violators of the law to court.

Watch System

Practice of assigning individuals to night observation duty to warn the public of fires and crime; first introduced to the American colonies in Boston and later evolved into a system of paid, uniformed police.

Slave Patrols

Distinctively American form of law enforcement in Southern states that sought to catch and control slaves through patrol groups that stopped and questioned African Americans on the roads and elsewhere in public places.

Sherrif

Top law enforcement official in county government who was an exceptionally important police official during the country’s westward expansion and continues to bear primary responsibility for many local jails.

U.S. Marshals

Federal law enforcement officials originally appointed to handle duties in western territories; today they bear responsibility for providing federal court security and apprehending fugitives.

Community Policing

Approach to policing that emphasizes close personal contact between police and citizens and the inclusion of citizens in efforts to solve problems, including vandalism, disorder, youth misbehavior, and crime.

Problem-Oriented Policing

Community policing strategy that emphasizes solving problems of disorder in a neighborhood that may contribute to fear of crime and to crime itself.

Intelligence-Led Policing

An approach to policing, in conjunction with concerns about homeland security, that emphasizes gathering and analyzing information to be shared among agencies in order to develop cooperative efforts to identify, prevent, and solve problems.

FBI Special Agents

The sworn law enforcement officers in the FBI who conduct investigations and make arrests.

Law Enforcement Certification

Preservice training required for sworn officers in many states, which includes coursework on law, psychology, police procedures, and the use of weapons. Police departments for states and large cities often run training programs called police academies for their own recruits.

Socialization

The process by which the rules, symbols, and values of a group or subculture are learned by its member.

Subculture

The symbols, beliefs, values, and attitudes shared by members of a subgroup of the larger society.

Working Personality

A set of emotional and behavioral characteristics developed by members of an occupational group in response to the work situation and environmental influences.

Order Maintenance

The police function of preventing behavior that disturbs or threatens to disturb the public peace or that involves face-to-face conflict between two or more people. In such situations, the police exercise discretion in deciding whether a law has been broken.

Law Enforcement

The police function of controlling crime by intervening in situations in which the law has clearly been violated and the police need to identify and apprehend the guilty person.

Service

The police function of providing assistance to the public for many matters unrelated to crime as well as for crime prevention education.

Police Bureaucracy

The organizational description of police departments’ design and operations that seek to achieve efficiency through division of labor, chain of command, and rules to guide staff.

Patrol Units

The core operational units of local police departments that deploy uniformed officers to handle the full array of police functions for service, order maintenance, and law enforcement.

Chain of Command

Organizational structure based on a military model with clear definition of ranks to indicate authority over subordinates and obligations to obey orders from superiors.

Special Units

Units within local police departments that deploy officers, often in plain clothes if not assigned to the traffic unit, who are dedicated to a specific task, such as investigation, or type of crime, such as narcotics enforcement.

Watchman Style

Style of policing that emphasizes order maintenance and tolerates minor violations of law as officers use discretion to handle small infractions informally but make arrests for major violations.

Legalistic Style

Style of policing that emphasizes strict enforcement of laws and reduces officers’ authority to handle matters informally.

Service Style

Style of policing in which officers cater to citizens’ desire for favorable treatment and sensitivity to individual situations by using discretion to handle minor matters in ways that seek to avoid embarrassment or punishment.

Domestic Violence

The term commonly used to refer to intimate partner violence or violent victimizations between spouses, boyfriends, and girlfriends or those formerly in intimate relationships. Such actions account for a significant percentage of the violent victimizations experienced by women.

Excessive Use of Force

Applications of force against individuals by police officers that violate either departmental policies or constitutional rights by exceeding the level of force permissible and necessary in a given situation.

Police Corruption

Police officers’ violations of law and departmental policy for personal gain or to help their families and friends.

Internal Affairs Unit

A branch of a police department that receives and investigates complaints alleging violation of rules and policies on the part of officers.

Civilian Review Board

Citizens’ committee formed by city or other governmental authority to investigate complaints against the police.

Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA)

Nonprofit organization formed by major law enforcement executives’ associations to develop standards for police policies and practice; on request, will review police agencies and award accreditation upon meeting those standards.

Section 1983 Lawsuits

Civil lawsuits authorized by a federal statute against state and local officials and local agencies when citizens have evidence that these officials or agencies have violated their federal constitutional rights.

Qualified Immunity

A legal immunity granted to police officers and other government officials that shields them from constitutional rights lawsuits if judges accept the claim that the rights in question were not clearly defined so that the officers could not have known that their actions violated an individual’s rights.

Evidence-Based Policing

Police strategies and deployment of resources developed through examination of research on crime, social problems, and previously used strategies.

Reactive

Acting in response to a notification about suspicious activity, a crime, a medical emergency, or other service need.

Proactive

Acting in anticipation; actively searching for potential offenders without waiting for a crime to be reported. Arrests for victimless crimes are usually proactive.

Incident-Driven Policing

Policing in which calls for service are the primary instigators of action.

Differential Response

A patrol strategy that assigns priorities to calls for service and chooses the appropriate response.

CompStat

Approach to crime prevention and police productivity measurement pioneered in New York City and then adopted in other cities that involves frequent meetings among police supervisors to examine detailed crime statistics for each precinct and develop immediate approaches and goals for problem solving and crime prevention.

Clearance Rate

The percentage of crimes known to the police that they believe they have solved through an arrest; a statistic used to measure a police department’s productivity.

Sworn Officers

Police employees who have taken an oath and been given powers by the state to make arrests and to use necessary force in accordance with their duties.

Preventive Patrol

Making the police presence known, to deter crime and to enable officers to respond quickly to calls.

Detectives

Police officers, typically working in plain clothes, who investigate crimes that have occurred by questioning witnesses and gathering evidence.

School Resource Officers (SROs)

Police officers assigned for duty in schools to assist in order maintenance while also developing positive relationships with students, which may assist in delinquency prevention.

Directed Patrol

A proactive form of patrolling that directs resources to known high-crime areas.

Aggressive Patrol

A patrol strategy designed to maximize the number of police interventions and observations in the community.

Problem-Oriented Policing

An approach to policing in which officers routinely seek to identify, analyze, and respond to the circumstances underlying the incidents that prompt citizens to call the police.

Community Crime Prevention

Programs through which criminal justice officials cultivate relationships with and rely on assistance from citizens in preventing crime and apprehending offenders within neighborhoods.

Search

Government officials’ examination of and hunt for evidence on a person or in a place in a manner that intrudes on reasonable expectations of privacy.

Reasonable Expectation of Privacy

The objective standard developed by courts for determining whether a government intrusion into an individual’s person or property constitutes a search because it interferes with the individual’s interests that are normally protected from government examination.

Plain View Doctrine

Officers may examine and use as evidence, without a warrant, contraband or evidence that is in open view at a location where they are legally permitted to be.

Seizures

Situations in which police officers use their authority to deprive people of their liberty or property and that must not be “unreasonable” according to the Fourth Amendment.

Stop

Government officials’ interference with an individual’s freedom of movement for a duration that typically lasts less than one hour and only rarely extends for as long as several hours.

Reasonable Suspicion

A police officer’s belief, based on articulable facts that would be recognized by others in a similar situation, that criminal activity is afoot and necessitates further investigation that will intrude on an individual’s reasonable expectation of privacy.

Tennessee v. Garner (1985)

Deadly force may not be used against an unarmed and fleeing suspect unless necessary to prevent the escape and unless the officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious injury to the officers or others.

Probable Cause

Reliable information indicating that it is more likely than not that evidence will be found in a specific location or that a specific person is guilty of a crime.

Affidavit

Written statement of fact, supported by oath or affirmation, submitted to judicial officers to fulfill the requirements of probable cause for obtaining a warrant.

Illinois v. Gates (1983)

U.S. Supreme Court decision that established the flexible “totality of circumstances” test for determining the existence of the probable cause needed for obtaining a search warrant.

Totality of Circumstances

Flexible test established by the Supreme Court for identifying whether probable cause exists that permits the judge to determine if the available evidence is both sufficient and reliable enough to issue a warrant.

Terry v. Ohio (1968)

Supreme Court decision endorsing police officers’ authority to stop and frisk suspects on the streets when there is reasonable suspicion that they are armed and involved in criminal activity.

Stop-And-Frisk Search

Limited search approved by the Supreme Court in Terry v. Ohio, which permits police officers to pat down the clothing of people on the street if there is reasonable suspicion of dangerous criminal activity.

Chimel v. California (1969)

Supreme Court decision that endorsed warrantless searches for weapons and evidence in the immediate vicinity of people who are lawfully arrested.

Exigent Circumstances

When there is an immediate threat to public safety or the risk that evidence will be destroyed, officers may search, arrest, or question suspects without obtaining a warrant or following other usual rules of criminal procedure.

Consent Search

A permissible warrantless search of a person, vehicle, home, or other location based on a person with proper authority or the reasonable appearance of proper authority voluntarily granting permission for the search to take place.

United States v. Drayton (2002)

Judicial decision declaring that police officers are not required to inform people of their right to decline to be searched when police ask for consent to search.

Inventory Search

Permissible warrantless search of a vehicle that has been “impounded”—meaning that it is in police custody—so that police can make a record of the items contained in the vehicle.

Miranda v. Arizona (1966)

U.S. Supreme Court decision declaring that suspects in custody must be informed of their rights to remain silent and to be represented during questioning.

“Public Safety” Exception

Exception to Miranda requirements that permits police to immediately question a suspect in custody without providing any warnings, if public safety would be jeopardized by their taking the time to supply the warnings.

Exclusionary Rule

The principle that illegally obtained evidence must be excluded from trial.

Wolf v. Colorado (1949)

Supreme Court decision in which the Fourth Amendment was applied against searches by state and local police officers, but the exclusionary rule was not imposed as the remedy for violations of the Fourth Amendment by these officials.

Mapp v. Ohio (1961)

Supreme Court decision that applied the exclusionary rule as the remedy for improper searches by state and local officials.

Weeks v. United States (1914)

Supreme Court decision applying the exclusionary rule as the remedy for improper searches by federal law enforcement officials.

“Good Faith” Exception

Exception to the exclusionary rule that permits the use of improperly obtained evidence when police officers acted in honest reliance on a defective statute, a warrant improperly issued by a magistrate, or a consent to search by someone who lacked authority to give such permission.

United States v. Leon (1984)

Supreme Court decision announcing the “good faith” exception to the exclusionary rule.

“Inevitable Discovery” Rule

Supreme Court ruling that improperly obtained evidence can be used if it would inevitably have been discovered by the police.

Nix v. Williams (1984)

Legal decision in which the Supreme Court created the “inevitable discovery” exception to the exclusionary rule.