Criminal justice Exam 1

Actus reus

the guilty act and refers to the principle that a person must commit some forbidden act or neglect some mandatory act before they can be subjected to criminal sanctions.

Arraignment

a proceeding in which it is the first time defendants have the opportunity to respond to the charges against them.

Arrest

when a person has been legally detained to answer criminal charges

Causation

refers to the necessity to establish a causal link between the criminal act and the harm suffered.

Concurrence

that the act (actus reus) and the mental state (mens rea) concur in the sense that the criminal intention actuates the criminal act.

Corpus delicti

a Latin term meaning “body of the crime” and refers to the elements of an act that must be present to legally define it as a crime.

Crime

an intentional act in violation of the criminal law committed without defense or excuse, and penalized by the state.

Criminality

a clinical or scientific term rather than a legal one and one that can be defined independently of legal definitions of crimes.

Criminology

an interdisciplinary science that gathers and analyzes data on various aspects of criminal, delinquent, and general antisocial behavior (the study of criminals).

Grand jury

nominally an investigatory body and a buffer between the awesome power of the state and its citizens.

Harm

refers to the negative impact a crime has either to the victim or to the general values of the community

Hypotheses

statements about relationships between and among factors we expect to find based on the logic of our theories

Ideology

means the set of beliefs and ideas someone has about crime, punishment, laws, and how the justice system should work.

Mala in se

refers to acts that are considered inherently wrong or immoral, regardless of whether there is a law against them.

Mala prohibita

an act is illegal because the law says it is illegal, even though the act itself may not be naturally immoral.

Mens rea

guilty mind and refers to whether the suspect had a wrongful purpose in mind when carrying out the actus reus.

Theory

trying to grasp how all the known factors related to (or correlated with) a phenomenon such as crime are linked together in noncoincidental ways to produce an effect.

Crime mapping

the use of data and maps to show where crimes happen in a specific area.

Crime rate

he number of crimes reported in a specific area during a certain period, usually compared to the size of the population.

Dark figure of crime

refers to the actual amount of crime that is committed

Ecology of crime

the study of how the environment and surroundings of a place can influence crime.

Hierarchy rule

agencies report only the most serious crime that occurs in a criminal event

National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)

a U.S. survey that asks people about crimes they experienced, including crimes that were not reported to the police.

National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)

a system that collects detailed information about crimes reported to law enforcement, including the type of crime, victims, offenders, and circumstances.

Part I offenses (or index crimes)

Serious crimes that are used to measure crime rates in the United States. Examples include murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, theft, and motor vehicle theft.

Part II offenses

less serious crimes that are not included in the Part I index crimes. Examples are simple assault, drug offenses, disorderly conduct, vandalism, and fraud.

Self-report surveys

surveys where people report their own involvement in crimes, either as offenders or victims.

Uniform Crime Reports (UCR)

crime statistics collected from law enforcement agencies across the U.S. to track and measure crime.

Domestic violence

a variety of acts and refers to any abusive act (physical, sexual, or psychological) that occurs within a domestic setting.

Hate crime

a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.”

Human trafficking

the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion for the purpose of exploitation

Identity theft

the use of someone else’s personal information without their permission to fraudulently obtain goods and services.

Rape trauma syndrome

the shock, anger, and depression that typically afflict a rape victim. Similar to post- traumatic stress syndrome.

Routine activities/lifestyle theory

The idea that crime is more likely to happen when a motivated offender, a suitable target, and a lack of guardianship come together.

Sexual assault

Any unwanted sexual contact or behavior that occurs without a person’s consent.

Victim blaming

When someone holds the victim responsible for the crime or suggests they caused it instead of blaming the offender.

Victim precipitation theory

By acting in certain provocative ways, some individuals initiate a chain of events that lead to their victimization.

Victimology

a subfield of criminology that specializes in studying the victims of

crime

Atavism

describes the appearance of organisms resembling ancestral (prehuman) forms of life

Born criminal

criminals are biological throwbacks to earlier evolutionary stages, identifiable by physical features called stigmata, such as a larger jaw or uneven eyes.

Cartographic criminologists

(scholars who employ geographic information in their research) who employ their methods to study crime

Cesare Beccaria

An Italian philosopher who argued that punishments should be fair, certain, and proportional to the crime, helping shape the Classical School of criminology.

Cesare Lombroso

An Italian criminologist who argued that criminal behavior could be linked to biological traits and that some people were “born criminals.” He is considered a major figure in the Positivist School of criminology.

Classical school

a school of philosophical jurisprudence bent on establishing a set of reformist moral values in criminal justice

CompStat

a police management and accountability process that has been implemented across the nation

Criminal by passion

hot-headed and impulsive persons who commit violent acts when provoked.

Criminaloid

had none of the physical peculiarities of the born or insane criminal and were considered less dangerous

Determinism

events have causes that preceded them, crime resulted from internal and/or external forces impinging on individuals, biasing or even completely determining their behavioral choices

Deterrence

he prevention of criminal acts by the use or threat of punishment and may be either specific or general.

Enlightenment

a major shift in the way people began to view the world and their place in it in the 18th century

Free will

The idea that people can choose their actions and are responsible for their decisions, including whether to commit a crime.

Garofalo’s categories of criminals

Garofalo classified criminals into four types: murderers, violent criminals, lacking integrity (thieves), and sexual criminals.

General deterrence

the preventive effect of the threat of punishment on the general population, that is, on potential offenders

Habitual criminals

People who repeatedly commit crimes, often because criminal behavior has become a regular pattern or habit.

Hedonism

The idea that people are motivated by seeking pleasure and avoiding pain.

Hedonistic calculus

The idea that people are motivated by seeking pleasure and avoiding pain.

Insane criminal

people who become criminals as a result of an alteration of the brain, which completely upsets their moral nature, are not born criminals

Jeremy Bentham

A philosopher who believed people are motivated by pleasure and avoiding pain. He helped develop utilitarianism and influenced the Classical School of criminology.

Juridical criminals

People who are considered criminals because they violate laws created by society, regardless of whether the act is naturally immoral.

Pain pleasure principle

The idea that people seek pleasure and avoid pain, and their choices are influenced by which outcome gives them more pleasure or less pain.

Perceptual deterrence theory

The idea that people are less likely to commit crimes when they believe there is a high chance of being caught and punished.

Positivist school

The idea that people are less likely to commit crimes when they believe there is a high chance of being caught and punished.

Principle of utility

The idea that people choose actions that maximize pleasure and minimize pain.

Rationality

The idea that people use reason to make decisions by weighing the possible costs and benefits of their actions

Recidivism

committing another crime after previously being punished for one

Specific deterrence

refers to the effect of punishment on the future behavior of the person who experiences the punishment

Three elements of punishment

Certainty

• Swiftness

• Severity