(ECO 170 - 09.14.26) Systemic Injustice, Legal Coercion, and the History of Institutional Violence

Flashcards covering key vocabulary, historical examples, and criminal justice theories discussed in the Chapter 1 lecture transcript.

Lehman Brothers

An investment bank that collapsed during the 2008 financial crash after being caught with layered mortgage-backed securities supported by future promises to pay from individuals with no money.

Mortgage-Backed Securities

Layered financial assets driven and supported by the promise of future payments from borrowers, which caused severe systemic failure in the 2008 global economy.

Forced Confession

An admission of guilt obtained through prolonged detention and interrogation without food, water, or rest, wearing down a suspect until they confess regardless of truth.

Spanish Inquisition

An internal police force formalized after a church-state schism to suppress heretics, prevent insurrections, and maintain state control using refined torture mechanisms.

The Rack

A torture device perfected during the Spanish Inquisition that tied an individual's arms and legs to ropes and stretched them by turning wheels.

Drawing and Quartering

A severe punishment perfected during the Spanish Inquisition where a person's body was cut open and their limbs were tied to horses driven in opposite directions to pull them apart.

Rounding Up the Usual Suspects

A law enforcement practice of detaining local individuals known for minor offenses when no evidence exists for a specific crime, creating a superficial appearance of active investigation on paper.

Non-Contact Visit

A prison policy implemented in closed rooms with shatterproof glass, steel trim, and wire mesh partitions to deny physical contact and attempt to sever emotional connections between inmates and visitors.

Humiliation Ritual

Systemic procedures, such as mandatory full-body cavity strip searches, imposed on inmates before visits or interactions with staff to assert control and degradation.

Hunger Strike

An organized, collective form of labor activity and protest inside prisons where inmates refuse to eat to demand improved living conditions and proper sustenance.

National Committee to Combat Fascism (NCCF)

A radical organization in the 1960s involved in armed conflicts with law enforcement and organized around anti-policing and anti-fascist rhetoric.

Fascism

As defined by Benito Mussolini, a system of pure corporatism where business interests and state power become completely fused, requiring an oppositional external or internal enemy to sustain itself.

IG Farben

A major German corporate holding company that produced chemicals like Zyklon B for the Holocaust and remained protected from Allied bombing during World War II due to international corporate interests.

COINTELPRO

A series of federal counterintelligence actions designed to surveillance, infiltrate, and destabilize radical political organizations in the United States through repression and incarceration.