Criminal Justice Comprehensive Exam (Bachelors)

Aspects of Scientific Enterprise

Theory - deals with the logical aspects of science

Methods - deal with the observational aspect

Statistics - provide a device to compare what is logically expected with what is actually observed

Case Attrition

the process through which prosecutors, by deciding whether to prosecute each person arrested, effect an overall reduction in the number of persons prosecuted

Chivalry Hypothesis

The view that the low rates of female crime and delinquency are a reflection of the leniency with which police treat female offenders.

Civil Laws

Laws designed to protect individuals or groups from having their civil rights violated by other individuals, organizations or groups.

Classical View of Crime

An eighteenth-century approach to crime causation and criminal responsibility that grew out of the enlightenment and that emphasized the role of free will and reasonable punishments. Classical thinkers believed that punishment, if it is to be an effective deterrent, has to outweigh the potential pleasure derived from criminal behavior.

Components of Criminal Justice system

• law enforcement

• judicial

• corrections

Conflict Model

a criminal justice perspective that assumes that the system's components function primarily to serve their own interests

Congregate System

a penitentiary system, developed in Auburn, New York, in which each inmate was held in isolation during the night but worked and ate with other prisoners during the day under the rule of silence.

Consensus Model

a criminal justice perspective that assumes that the systems components work together harmoniously to achieve the social product we call justice

Corruption

inducement (as of a public official) by improper means (as bribery) to violate duty (as by commiting a felony)

Crime Control Model

A criminal justice perspective that emphasizes the efficient arrest and conviction of criminal offenders.

Death Penalty

take the life of the convicted by use of various means, i.e., lethal injection, electric chair, gas mass.

Deontological Theory

A theory that states that people should adhere to their obligations and duties when analyzing an ethical dilemma

Due Process Model

A criminal justice perspective that emphasizes individual rights at all stages of justice system processing. 5th and 14th amendments

Ethical Formalism

The ethical system espoused by Kant that focuses on duty; holds that the only thing truly good is a good will, and that what is good is that which conforms to the categorical imperative

Ethical Leaders

Provide social modeling, uphold ethical values, communicate openly and honestly

Excessive Force

the application of an amount or frequency of force greater than that required to compel compliance from a willing or unwilling subject.

First Modern Police Force

British Metropolitan Police

Four Purposes of Research

Exploration (little are known), description (describes the scope of the crime problem or policy responses to the problem), exploration (explains things), application (to apply)

Illinois Juvenile Court Act of 1899

children should not be treated as adults; juveniles should be rehabilitated, not punished; disposition should be based on individual needs; system should not be as complicated as adults

Jail vs Prison

-prison is much more severe and permanent.

-Jail= designed to hold individuals awaiting trial or a serving short sentences. Run by local governments

-Prison= operated by state governments and are designed to hold individuals convicted of crimes.

Jihad

a holy struggle or striving by a Muslim for a moral or spiritual or political goal

Just Deserts

a model of criminal sentencing that holds that criminal offenders deserve the punishment they receive at the hands of the law and that punishments should be appropriate to the type and severity of the crime committed.

Justification

a statement in explanation of some action or belief

Juvenile Court Judge

the individual who is primarily responsible for the operation of the juvenile court including deciding guilt or innocence and disposition of cases.

Knapp Commission

A committee that investigated police corruption in New York City in the early 1970's.

Accessory before the fact

a person who procures or advises or commands the commission of a felony but who is not present at its perpetration

Accessory After the Fact

one who knowing a crime has been committed helps conceal the crime or the criminal

Actus Reus

activity that transgresses moral or civil law

Mens Rea

criminal intent

Alibi

a defense by an accused person purporting to show that he or she could not have committed the crime in question

Concurrence

The coexistence of (1) an act in violation of the law and (2) a culpable mental state

Conspiracy

a secret agreement between two or more people to perform an unlawful act

Criminal Defenses

duress, mistake of fact, mistake of law, insanity, infancy, self-defense, and entrapment

Factual Guilt

THE ACCUSED DID IN FACT COMMIT THE CRIME OR ACT IN QUESTION, OR THERE IS SUBSTANTIAL EVIDENCE OF PROOF

BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT THAT THE ACCUSED DID SO

First Degree Murder

Killing that is premeditated, deliberate, and done with malice

Incohate Offenses

an offense not yet completed (incomplete), an offense which consists of an action or conduct which is a step toward the intended commission of another offense (ex: Solicitation, Conspiracy, and attempt)

Solicitation

the act of enticing a person to do something wrong (as an offer of sex in return for money)

Legal Moralism

justifies laws agains prostitution

Missouri Plan

A method of choosing judges.

Morals vs ethics

Morals define personal character where as ethics stress a social system

Morals - an individual's code of behavior based on religious or philosophical principles.

Ethics - a rational way of deciding what is good for individuals or society. Ethics provides standards for deciding between competing moral standards.

Motives for Rape

power, or seek control over the person, and anger, or the expression of hostility toward the person - rape is an act of violence, not an act of sexual desire

National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)

An annual survey of selected American households conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) to determine the extent of criminal victimization in the United States.

Parole

a conditional release from imprisonment that entitiles the person to serve the remainder of the sentence outside the prison as long as the terms of release are complied with

Posse Comitatus Act

In south carolina they were really big on separating military and law enforcement tasks. This act was passed in 1878 and generally prohibits military units under federal jurisdictions from acting in a law enforcement capacity.

Principle in the first degree

parties who actually take part in a criminal act; those who possess the mens rea but convince another to perfom the actual physical conduct.

Principle in the second degree

Present at the crime but does NOT commit the crime

Probability Sampling

A type of sampling in which every element in the population being studied has a known chance of being selected for study

Probable Cause

evidence sufficient to warrant an arrest or search and seizure

Probation

a way of dealing with offenders without imprisoning them

Proof Beyond Reasonable Doubt

a standard of proof in which the vast majority of the evidence supports the guilty verdict

Reasonable Suspicion

evidence that justifies an officer in stopping and questioning an individual believed to be involved in criminal activity

Conceptualization

inventing or contriving an idea or explanation and formulating it mentally

Operationalization

The process of assigning a precise method for measuring a term being examined for use in a particular study

Independent Variable

the experimental factor that is manipulated; the variable whose effect is being studied

Dependent Value

in an experiment, the factor whose value changes because of a change in the independent.

Qualitative Data

Information describing color, odor, shape, or some other physical characteristic

Quantitative Data

numerical data

Tests of Statistical Significance

A class of statistical computations that indicate the likelihood that the relationship observed between variables in a sample can be attributed to sampling error only.

Restitution

the act of restoring something to its original state

Retribution

a justly deserved penalty

Strain Theory

theory that deviance is more likely to occur when a gap exists between cultural goals and the ability to achieve these goals by legitimate means

Self-Reported Survey

a method of gathering crime data that relies on participants to reveal and detail their own criminal or delinquent behavior

Social Control

a group's formal and informal means of enforcing its norms

Social Disorganization Theory

The theory that attributes increases in crime and deviance to the absence or breakdown of communal relationships and social institutions, such as the family, school, church, and local government

Super Max Prisons

Reserved for most serious offenders; Completely isolated; No treatment or rehabilitation programs; Allowed an hour an a half out of confinement to shower and exercise; 24 hour supervision

Sutherlands Differential Association Theory

emphasizes the role of social interaction in molding ones attitudes & behaviors

Teleological Theory

decision-making theory that judges the rightness or wrongness based on the outcomes or predicted outcomes

Broken Window Theory

Theory proposing that disorder leads to crime because criminals assume a neighborhood that tolerates disorder will also ignore criminal acts.

Due process

the administration of justice according to established rules and principles

Crime Control

a model of criminal justice that emphasizes the control of dangerous offenders and the protection of society

Rehabilitation

the restoration of someone to a useful place in society

Uniform Crime Report

an annual FBI publication that summerizes the incidence and rate of reported crimes throughout the US

Utilitarian Theory

A theory that holds that the choice that yields the greatest benefit to the most people is the choice that is ethically correct

William Julius Wilson

argued that class is now more important then race for understanding the access to valuable social resources such as jobs

Peelian Model

focuses primarily on crime prevention

Wolfgang Victimology Findings

25-50% of all homicides there was victim precipitation

Informal values of police

Cynicism, Loyalty, and Force

Model Rules of Professional Responsibility

evaluating attorney misconduct

Model Code for Judicial Conduct

ethical code for judges

Moral development of values

values and moral beliefs are developing through modeling and reinforcement

Root cause of criminal behavior

poverty, unemployment, underemployment, racism, poor health care, bad housing, weak schools, mental illness, alcoholism, single-parent families, teenage pregnancy, and a society of selfishness and greed

Prosecutor role during pre trial process

The prosecutor has to become familiar with the facts of the crime, talk to the witnesses, study the evidence, anticipate problems that could arise during trial, and develop a strategy.

Primary Legal functions of the law

Teach societal boundaries

Criminal attempt

A criminal attempt occurs when a person, with the intent to commit an offense, performs any act that constitutes a substantial step toward the commission of that offense.

Sampson and Laubs findings

Life course theory (a sequence of socially defined events and roles that the individual enacts over time)